Teo Pisani’s second goal in Sunday’s atom AA major provincial final was the overtime winner for the St. Albert Lightning.
Evan Leung assisted on Pisani’s power-play marker early in the sudden-death period, as the Lightning edged the Glenlake Hawks of Calgary 6-5 in Fort McMurray.
The Lightning battled back from deficits of 3-0 in the first and 4-2 in the second.
Will Lutic and Quinn Hoffman scored in the first, Pisani and Karson Kerbes struck in the second and Ty Gordon made it 5-4 Lightning four minutes into the third.
The Hawks tied it at five at the 6:51 mark.
Luke Prostebby finished the game with two assists.
Shots were 29-28 for the Lightning and Matthew Kondro was in net.
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The Lightning went 3-0-1 in the round robin. Scores were 7-3 against the Strathcona Warriors, 9-1 against the Camrose Vikings, 6-2 against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons and 4-4 against the Edmonton Oil Kings.
The 10-3 semifinal victory over the Grande Prairie Knights featured six goals and one assist by Gordon. Cohen Daoust potted a pair and Leung and Hoffman also scored.
Tate de Bruijn faced 18 shots and the Lightning fired 37 shots.
The Lightning were 59-5-2 before Tuesday’s Hockey Edmonton final against the Whitemud Badgers but the score was unavailable at pres time.
Meanwhile, the St. Albert Barons were 2-1-1 in pool play at the provincials for third place behind the Hawks and Knights.
The St. Albert Comets shone bright in the Edmonton Rural Bantam AA Hockey League playoff series against the St. Albert Elite Sportswear Blues.
The Comets defeated the Blues 5-2 Saturday and 6-2 Sunday after Friday’s 4-3 loss in game one in the best-of-three Metro conference final.
The series victory secured a spot in the best-of-three league final against the Rural conference champion Fort McMurray Barons, starting April 7 in Fort McMurray.
The Comets (20-6-6) finished first in the Blue division and the Barons (23-8-1) were the top team in the Black division.
The Blues (22-7-3), second in the Red division, knocked off the Comets in game one on Joel Vollrath’s winner with only second remaining in regulation time.
Ryland Strauss, Joshua Cyr and Aidyn Hutchinson also scored and Cole Crozier faced 23 shots.
Brett Reiter, Dylan Leslie and Graziano Grozic replied for the Comets and Carson Ironside stopped 26 shots.
Palmer Strang, Carter MacDonald, Ryan Holmes, Owen Bourque and Adem Olsen found the back of the net for the Comets in game two.
Vollrath and Carter Albrecht scored for the Blues.
Shots were 26-25 for the Comets and the netminders were Ironside and Crozier.
In game three, Reiter and Olsen tallied twice and Grozic and Breck McKinley sniped singles.
Vollrath and Albrecht led the way for the Blues. Vollrath’s goal was his league-leading 12th of the playoffs.
Shots were 44-30 for the Comets. Ironside (5-2, 2.10 GAA) and Crozier (6-2, 2.63 GAA) were the starting goalies.
On tap next for the Comets is the bantam AA provincials, March 30 to April 2 in Olds, and they will be joined by the Barons in the five-team draw.
The St. Albert Source for Sports Crusaders forced a third and deciding game in the Northern Alberta Hockey League playoffs in Monday’s win at Bill Hunter Arena.
Seth Summers’ unassisted marker with under three minutes left in the third period was the winner in the 2-1 decision over the SSAC Son Wheaton in game two of the best-of-three Metro Conference final.
Rhys Mazur also scored in the middle frame.
Shots were 44-16 for the Crusaders and Shane Zilka (4-0, 1.88 GAA) was in net.
Game three was Tuesday in St. Albert but the score was unavailable at press time.
The winner plays the Rural conference champion Strathcona Warriors in the best-of-five league final.
The Metro conference series opener was 3-2 for SSAC on Saturday at Go Auto Arena.
Summers and Cole Ridd supplied the offence for the home team.
The shot count was 40-24 for the Crusaders and Parker Waseylenko (1-2-1, 3.46 GAA) was between the pipes.
In league play, SSAC (12-17-3) tied for third in the Anderson division and the Crusaders (19-11-2) were second in the Besa division.
Both teams finished first in their respective divisional playoff rounds. The Crusaders won five of their last six games, including the pivotal 6-2 divisional clincher against the sixth-place Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (7-24-1) after losing to the Rangers 5-1 to start off the playoffs.
