The St. Albert Merchants streak into the Christmas break as winners of nine in a row as the No. 1 team in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
The west division-leading Money Men are 22-5 with 11 games left until the playoffs after doubling the Stony Plain Flyers 6-3 Friday at Glenn Hall Centennial Arena.
Mitch McNamara’s third goal of the night and his second on the power play early in the third period was the game winner.
The hat-trick raised McNamara’s goal total to 13 in 20 games. He is also the team’s sin-bin leader with 137 penalty minutes. The Merchants are the CJHL’s most penalized team at 1,007 PIM, 27 more than the Fort Saskatchewan Hawks (20-8), the defending Founders Cup champions and first-place east division team.
In the opening period, Mike Bruni scored with the man advantage with two seconds remaining to make it 2-0.
Thomas Rotundo broke a 2-2 tie halfway through the second and the red-hot Mike Roeleveld found the back of an empty net with 1:59 to play. Roeleveld’s goal was his eighth in seven games and team-leading 19th in 26 games.
Liam McNamara and Taylor Wiebe chipped in with two assists apiece.
Ty Clelland (15-1, 2.76 GAA) recorded the win in net.
The Flyers (16-11) were outshot 11-3 in the third and 33-19 overall.
The 2014 Founders Cup finalists and fourth-place team at provincials ring in the new year on Jan. 4 against the Edmonton Mustangs (15-8-2) at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The Merchants are 12-1 on home ice.
The St. Albert Raiders are undefeated in 14 games after winning their seventh in a row in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
The offensive trio of Ryan Peckford, Cam Mazur and Cam Lockard combined for five goals as the Raiders crushed the Calgary Flames 9-4 Sunday at Akinsdale Arena.
Peckford potted a pair and helped set up three goals, Mazur tallied twice and added two assists and Lockard scored once and had two helpers.
Riley Smith, Kaidan McDonald, Luigi Naccarato (power play) and Parker AuCoin also scored and Kole Bryks pocketed three assists.
AuCoin’s goal was his team-high 19th and 35th point for third place in the AMHL scoring race.
The Raiders posted period leads of 4-0 and 7-1 against the Flames (9-9-7).
Shots were 32-28 for the Raiders as Josh Dechaine (10-2-5, 3.04 GAA) backstopped the team to its 11th win in 14 games.
The day before Bryks notched one goal and two assists in the 4-1 victory over the Oil Kings (8-12-4) in Leduc. Smith, Tyson Chizma (power play) and McDonald (empty net) also scored.
The Raiders outshot the Oil Kings 41-27 and Ethan Crotty (3-2-2, 3.43 GAA) was in net.
The Raiders (13-4-7) enter the Christmas break two points back of the first-place Canadian Athletic Club (16-5-3) in the north division.
The next game is Jan. 4 against the Calgary Buffaloes (15-5-4), ranked first in the south. Puck drop is 1:15 p.m. in St. Albert. The Raiders are 7-3-3 at home.
The Morinville Kings finished last weekend’s split against two of the top three teams in the North Central Hockey League in second place in the senior AA standings.
Saturday, the Kings (10-4) lost 4-1 to the first-place Westlock Warriors at Ray McDonald Sports Centre and Sunday edged the two-time defending NCHL champion Devon Barons 6-5 in Thorsby.
Westlock (11-1), winner of eight in a row, led 3-0 after 40 minutes before Wayne Gatza scored the Kings’ only goal with 9:05 to play.
The Kings were outshot 35-31 and Chris Sharkey (5-3, 4.10 GAA) was between the pipes.
The scoring stats against Devon (8-5) were unavailable at press time.
The Kings are back on the ice Jan. 4 against the Rocky Rams (3-9) at 2:45 p.m. in Morinville.
The 2014 Hockey Alberta senior A champions have four games left until the playoffs.
