The first-place St. Albert Merchants rolled to their sixth-straight victory in the Capital Junior B Hockey League in Sunday’s 6-3 decision against the Strathcona Bruins.
Andrew Clark and captain Dan Rombough cashed in two goals apiece and Casey Reid chipped in with three assists against the Bruins (5-8) in Fultonvale.
Reid is the team leader in goals with 10 and points with 28 for fourth place in the CJHL scoring race.
Josh Jewell and Braeden Farge also connected and Blair Macuch and Brent McGugan each had two assists for the Merchants (11-3). Macuch is tied for first among assist leaders in the CJHL with 23 and his 26 points in 14 games is second best on the team.
The Merchants (11-3) outshot the Bruins 23-3 in the first period while posting a 3-1 lead. The final shot count was 50-19 overall.
Netminder Ty Clelland is undefeated in five games during the winning streak since joining the Merchants from the North Edmonton Red Wings.
The chippy affair featured 32 penalties for 133 minutes. The Bruins converted three power-play opportunities and the Merchants scored once with the man advantage on Rombough’s goal late in the game.
The Merchants are most penalized team in the west division and their 505 PIMs ranks third overall in the 14-team circuit.
Friday in Spruce Grove, the Merchants did all their scoring in the first frame in the 4-2 win against the Regals (4-7-2). It was 4-1 after a pair by Jordan MacPhee and singles by Mitch McNamara and Mike Bruni (power play).
The Merchants were credited with 41 shots overall.
Ethan Maertens-Poole stopped 32 shots for his fourth win of the season.
Friday, the 2014 Founders Cup finalists and fourth-place finishers at provincials travel to Stony Plain to play the Flyers (7-6) at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, they host the Beverly Warriors (8-3-2) at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The next home game for the Morinville Jets is Sunday versus the North Edmonton Red Wings in the Capital Junior B Hockey league.
Puck drop is 6:45 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
The Jets (9-4-1), Red Wings (9-3-1) and Edmonton Mustangs (9-3-1) are battling for second spot in the west division behind the St. Albert Merchants (11-3).
The Jets are 3-3 in their last six games after losing 5-2 to the Stony Plain Flyers (7-6) last weekend in Morinville.
The Jets trailed 3-1 after the first period and 5-1 after two periods.
Travis Geislinger and Boe Geislinger put pucks in the net. Shots were 34 apiece after a 15-6 edge for the home team in the third. In net was Lawrence Rosychuk (3-3, 4.76 GAA).
Tyler Hengel is the top scorer for the Jets with 18 goals and 27 points in 14 games.
The Morinville Kings share first place with the Devon Barons in the North Central Hockey League after back-to-back wins last weekend.
The senior AA Kings improved to 4-1 after beating the Whitecourt Wild 7-4 in Morinville and the Edson Ice 6-3 on the road.
The Barons, the two-time defending NCHL champions, are also 4-1.
The second win in a row for the Kings after losing their home opener 4-2 to Devon was against the Ice (3-2). Dan McPherson’s power-play goal with 7:19 to play made it 4-2 for the Kings. Glendon Macklem and Shane O’Neill sealed it with empty-net goals.
Riley Miller found the back of the net twice in the first period and assisted on McPherson’s goal. Miller is the league leader in goals with six and is tied for first in the scoring race with eight points.
Kyle Sheehan opened the scoring as the Kings led 3-0 after 20 minutes.
The Kings outshot the Ice 31-23 and Curtis Ronaldson (2-1, 3.33 GAA) was in net.
The night before at Ray McDonald Sports Centre the Kings outscored the Wild 5-1 in the third.
Brayden Arcand’s second goal of the game was a shorthanded effort to put the Kings up 4-2 with 15:06 remaining.
Adam Tomkow also converted a shorthanded opportunity in the second.
Aaron Baumgartner (power play), Macklem, Joshua Lefleche and Cody Issler also lit the lamp and Jorey McRae, Dalen Paul and O’Neill collected two assists apiece.
Shots were 38-20 for the Kings and the winning netminder was Chris Sharkey (2-0, 3.50 GAA).
This weekend, the 2014 Hockey Alberta senior A champions are in Westlock on Friday to play the Warriors (3-0) and Saturday they host the Rocky Rams (0-4). Game times are 8:30 p.m.
The St Albert Raiders padded their point total in the Albert Midget AAA Hockey League with three in two games last weekend at Akinsdale Arena.
The Raiders raised their record to 3-4-5 for 11 points after doubling the Maple Leafs (1-11) in a penalty-marred 6-3 decision and settled for a 3-3 draw against the Lethbridge Hurricanes (5-4-3).
The Raiders and Maple Leafs combined for 194 penalty minutes Saturday, with the visitors leading the way with 111 PIMs. The long list of infractions included a third-period scrap between Kole Bryks of the Raiders and Michal Sopiarz of the Maple Leafs with 4:40 to play.
Despite the rash of penalties to both teams the Maple Leafs notched the only power play goal of the night.
Cam Lockard scored twice to open the scoring and Ryan Cox, Parker AuCoin, Ryan Cooper and Colin Schmidt (empty net) also tallied. Ryan Peckford added two assists.
Shots were 42-25 for the Raiders and Josh Dechaine recorded the win in net.
Sunday afternoon Jaedon Leslie (power play), Peckford and AuCoin (power play) scored in the first frame.
Lethbridge replied with two even-strength goals and a power-play marker in a 2:14 minute-span to start the middle period against netminder Ethan Crotty, who stopped 13 shots before being replaced by Dechaine (3-2-4, 3.20 GAA) with 2:31 gone in the period. Dechaine faced 33 shots in relief of Crotty (0-2-1, 5.48 GAA).
The Raiders close out their six-game homestand this weekend against the KC Pats (3-8) Saturday and the Southeast Tigers (3-7-2) of Medicine Hat on Sunday. Start times are 1:15 p.m.
