The St. Albert Raiders are on the verge of elimination in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League playoffs after losing Thursday’s series opener against the Sherwood Park Kings.
Game two in the best-of-three opening round in the north division goes today at 3:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
Game three, if needed, is 8:45 p.m. Sunday in Sherwood Park.
In game one at Sherwood Park the Kings capitalized on the power play in the first period to make it 1-1 and in the third to lead 3-1.
Ty Lindberg scored with the man advantage in the first and Parker AuCoin tallied in the third for the Raiders. Nathan Bizeau assisted on both goals.
The Kings outshot the Raiders 16-7 in the first and 37-25 overall. In net was Pat Dea.
The Raiders (18-11-6) were undefeated in seven games going into the playoffs as the No. 5 seed out of six teams. The Kings (18-8-9) are seeded fourth. The top two teams received first-round byes.
In league play the top defensive team in the north beat the Kings 6-4 in Sherwood Park and 4-2 in St. Albert.
The St. Albert teams in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League have advanced to the next playoff round in their respective divisions.
The Blues (24-6-2) swept the Maple Leafs (6-23-3) in their best-of-three Inside Edge series and the Crusaders (22-4-6) were awarded a first-round decision against the last-place West Yellowhead Rockies (0-30-1) in the Clean Harbors division.
The Blues outscored the Maple Leafs 16-9 in two games this week.
Wednesday in game one Devyn Myck tallied twice and Luke Wright-Mascotto, Jake Mercier, Eamon Moloy, Dylan Kulmatycki and Steven Canduro notched singles in the 7-5 win in St. Albert. Adam Gallagher faced a game-high 31 shots.
The scoring summary for Thursday’s 9-4 win at Callingwood Arena was unavailable at press time.
The best-of-three division semifinals start Tuesday and end Sunday.
Visit www.namhl.ca for playoff schedules.
The St. Albert Slash scored their first goal of the season against the Edmonton Thunder but it wasn’t enough to win the opening game in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League semifinal.
It was 3-0 in the third when Megan Webb potted the Slash goal and Kyrelle Skoye and Kennedy Newton drew assists in Wednesday’s 4-1 loss to the five-time reigning AMMFHL champions at Castledowns Arena.
The Thunder outshot the Slash 42-19. In net was Sydney Williams.
Game two in the best-of-five series was played Friday in St. Albert but the score was unavailable at press time.
Game three is tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Castledowns.
If needed, game four is 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Northstar Hyundai Arena and game five is 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Castledowns.
In four league games the first-place Thunder (23-5-4) outscored the Slash (6-21-5) 20-0.
The St. Albert Flyers are within striking distance of second place in the standings with four games remaining before the Sutter North Cup playoffs start in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
The Flyers (17-9-7), ranked fourth in the north, host the KC Centennials (12-16-6) today at 3:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena and Sunday play the Maple Leafs (7-19-5) at 6:15 p.m. at Callingwood Arena.
The SSAC Bulldogs (19-9-5) and Spruce Grove PAC Saints (17-8-8) are second and third, respectively, in the north.
The Sutter North Cup tournament, March 6 to 9 in Lloydminster, determines the north reps at provincials, March 19 to 23 in Red Deer.
Last weekend on the road against south division teams the Flyers recorded wins of 3-2 against the SEAC Tigers (15-13-5) of Medicine Hat and 3-1 against the Lethbridge Hurricanes (11-17-5).
Zach Webb, Ethan Marino and Zach Aston scored against the Tigers and Josh Dechaine (7-5-3, 2.47 GAA) made 33 saves.
Max Salpeter, Jake Bennett and Sean Richards potted goals against Lethbridge and Matt Murray (10-4-4, 2.00 GAA) faced 34 shots.
The Flyers are 3-1-1 in their last five games.
The St. Albert Raiders remain winless in 2014 after being outscored 5-1 in two home games last weekend in the Alberta Major Bantam Female Hockey League.
The Raiders (4-11-6) are 0-4-4 after the 1-1 tie against the Calgary Rangers (7-9-6) and 4-0 loss to the Peace Country Storm (10-9-3) of Grande Prairie.
Brooke Tipton scored against the Rangers and Hannah Clark stopped 19 shots.
The Storm outshot the Raiders 36-9.
The Raiders, ranked fourth out of five teams in the north, visit the first-place Edmonton Lightning (11-3-5) tonight at 6:15 p.m. at Castledowns Arena.
League play ends next weekend with road games against the Calgary Rangers (7-9-6) and Calgary Outlaws (6-9-4).
The St. Albert Lightning are a perfect four-for-four in tournaments entering the atom AA provincial championship.
The fourth title in a row was the West Edmonton Mall Family Day Weekend Tournament. The final was a tight 4-2 back-and forth affair against the Saskatoon Wild Lightning as the Bolts finished 5-0.
The Bolts were also victorious at the Jasper Rumble in the Rockies, Whitemud West Go Auto Invitational and Edmonton Minor Hockey Week.
Provincials are March 13 to 16 in Okotoks.
