The second-last home game before the playoffs for the St. Albert Merchants is Sunday against the Stony Plain Flyers.
Puck drop is 8 p.m. and the Merchants are 7-8-1 at Akinsdale Arena.
The Merchants have five games remaining before the west division qualifying round begins in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
If the playoffs started today, the fourth-place Merchants (15-13-4, 123 GF/142 GA) and fifth-place Flyers (14-16-3) would face-off for the second year in a row in the best-of-three series.
The second victory in three games for the Merchants was Wednesday’s 5-4 overtime decision against the second-place North Edmonton Red Wings (22-8-3) at Londonderry Arena.
Connor Tupala sniped the winner in the five-minute extra period.
Ryan Cooper and Cam Mazur set-up the defenceman’s fifth goal and 13th point of the season.
Krys Kraychy opened the scoring in the first period and the Merchants closed out the middle frame with goals by Brenden Passek, Matt Havens (power play) and affiliate Jacob Thomson to lead 3-1.
The Red Wings, winners of the last two Founders Cup playoff championships, outshot the Merchants 21-5 in the third while scoring three times, including the tying marker with 17 seconds remaining.
Shots were 6-3 in OT for the Merchants and 42-35 overall for the Red Wings.
Ethan Crotty (7-7, 4.16 GAA) was the winning netminder.
The St. Albert Flyers host a weekend homestand in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League with two games on tap at Akinsdale Arena.
The Flyers (23-0-1, 109 GF/64 GA) play the Lloydminster Rage (3-20-1) today at 4:15 p.m. and the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (4-17-2) Sunday at 3:45 p.m.
The Flyers are the No. 1 team in the AMMHL as the north division leaders.
Captain Blake Sydlowski is third in league scoring with 52 points and Stuart Dovey is fifth with 43 points.
Dovey is the team leader in goals with 22 and Sydlowski has registered 21.
Evan Fradette (11-0) leads all netminders with a 0.91 GAA, .961 save percentage and five shutouts.
Ryley Osland (12-0-1) ranks second in save percentage at .945, is third in GAA at 1.46 and is tied for third in shutouts with three.
The bantam elite St. Albert Raiders are shooting for their 14th straight win in the Alberta Female Hockey League today in Leduc.
Game time is 5:45 p.m. against the North Central Impact (8-9-0).
The 13-game winning streak includes six shutout decisions.
The last loss for the Raiders (15-2, 48 GF/16 GA) was 2-1 against the Edmonton Pandas (7-8-2) Nov. 2 in St. Albert.
Next weekend the Raiders host the Peace Country Storm (1-13-2) at 7:45 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Go Auto Arena.
