The St. Albert Tire Warehouse Raiders nailed down second place in the north division of the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League in Sunday’s win over the Southside Athletic Club.
Back-to-back goals by Spencer Augot and Logan Hunter in the third period and a game-high 36 saves by Chris Curr (11-8-1, 2.47 GAA) propelled the Raiders to the 3-1 decision at Bill Hunter Arena.
Zane Avery opened the scoring in the first period and the Southside replied in the middle frame.
The result lifted the Raiders (16-13-2) five points ahead of Southside (14-17-1) with a game in hand.
The Raiders have three games remaining and Southside has two before the playoffs start.
The Raiders and first-place Sherwood Park Kings (22-5-3) receive first-round byes for berths in the best-of-five division semifinals as the top two teams in the north.
The Raiders are 7-0-1 in the last eight games when they travel to play the SEAC Tigers (8-18-5) of Medicine Hat today at 5 p.m. and the Foothills Bisons (22-5-3) Sunday at 2 p.m. at Strathmore.
The first-place St. Albert Flyers have six games remaining before the Sutter North Cup provincial qualifier in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
The March 9 to 12 tournament at the Terwillegar and Callingwood arenas will determine two north division reps for provincials, March 22 to 26 in Grande Prairie.
Saturday the midget 15 Flyers (29-1-1) and PAC Saints (21-8) face-off at 2:45 p.m. at Glenn Hall Centennial Arena and Sunday’s game against the KC Centennials (19-9-2) starts at 3:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
Last weekend the Flyers posted wins of 8-2 against the Camrose Red Wings (4-17-7) at St. Albert and 6-3 against the Canadian Athletic Club (13-15-4) at Callingwood Arena.
Kye Buchanan and Dominik Cesarz tallied twice against Camrose as the Flyers improved to 14-0-1 on home ice.
Cam Aucoin, Carson Henry, captain Blake Sydlowski and Erik Boers also scored and Sydlowski and Tyler Pitre added two assists apiece.
The Flyers dominated the shot count at 55-9 and Evan Fradette (14-0, 1.00 GAA) was in net.
Kyle Fulton, Tanner Fincaryk, Matt Offenberger, Tyler MacDonald, Cesarz and Aucoin connected against the Canadians.
Shots were 54-42 for the Flyers as Ryley Osland (15-1-1, 1.65 GAA) backstopped the team to its fourth win in a row since losing 3-2 to the SSAC Bulldogs (18-9-4) Jan. 25 at Millwoods Arena.
The last game for the St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres before the playoffs is Thursday in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
The Sabres (29-1-4) and KC Squires (13-10-10) square-off at 7 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
It’s the fourth game in six days against Nitro north division opponents for the league’s No. 1 team.
The Sabres are coming off wins of 4-2 against the host Sherwood Park Kings (11-18-5) and 4-1 against the Maple Leafs (13-14-7) at Clareview Arena and Tuesday’s score against the Canadian Athletic Club (10-17-5) was unavailable at press time.
The Sabres will play the Flyers or Canadians in the best-of-three division opening round.
Prior to Tuesday’s tilt, Carter Savoie was fourth in league scoring with 67 points, Ethan Leyer was sixth with 64 points and Matt Savoie was tied for sixth in goals with 32.
The Morinville Kings resume their best-of-five semifinal against the Bonnyville Pontiacs on Saturday after losing the series opener in overtime.
Game two is 8:30 p.m. in Bonnyville between the second-place Kings (15-3) and third-place Pontiacs (14-3-1) in the North Central Senior AA Hockey League.
Game three is Feb. 18 at 8:30 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
If needed, game four is Feb. 24 at Bonnyville and game five is Feb. 25 at Morinville and the start times are 8:30 p.m.
The Pontiacs potted the OT winner at 6:47 in the extra period after Lyndin Lewis of the Kings knotted it at four at 17:47 of the third.
Kyle Harris, Cole Cavell and Travis Duperron also notched singles as the Kings rallied from a 3-1 deficit to pull even at three midway through the third.
The Kings were outshot 41-34 and Ty Swabb was between the pipes.
The teams split the season series with wins at home of 8-3 for the Pontiacs on Oct. 22 and 9-5 for the Kings on Dec. 10.
