The silver anniversary of the Family Hockey Tournament was celebrated last weekend in Riviere Qui Barre.
Participating in the 25th annual FHT were the following family teams: Boddez, Bokenfohr, Kieser, Kluthe, McKief (McRae and Kieftenbeld), Perrott, SheeFitz (Sheehan and Fitzgerald) and Soetaert.
The winner of Sunday's A final was SheeFitz, 7-4 over McKief.
SheeFitz battled back from an early 1-0 deficit and maintained the lead for the rest of the game, en route to the team's fifth FHT championship and the first 2003.
McKief was the 2015 champion as the winner of four FHT titles.
Dave Hook, 45, the SheeFitz netminder the past 25 years, stood on his head to make several outstanding saves and was voted player of the game by both teams.
In the semifinals, SheeFitz knocked off Bokenfohr, last year's champion and four-time FHT winner, with goal to break a 3-3 tie with eight seconds to play.
The tournament also featured the presentation of the Iron Man trophy to Bob Boddez, Michael Brenneis and Darrell Kieser for playing in all 75 games since the inception of the event.
Don McRae was also awarded an honorary Iron Man with 74 games played. The only game he missed was due to an injury in game two of a previous tournament.
The origins of the FHT are believe to have started back in the day with the Bokenfohr family securing a Sunday afternoon time slot and would challenge an area family to a friendly game of hockey as elders and children gathered to watch.
After some years Joe Dwyer, president of the Riviere Qui Barre Agricultural Society at the time who had married into the web of one of the area families, understood how important hockey was to small neighbouring communities and the FHT was launched to bring families together while playing for the right to be called the best hockey family for a year.
The inaugural 1993 champion was Kieser.
According to FHT historian, Doug Kinsella: "The tournament has been a great part of many people's lives whether through playing, watching or just simply visiting with family and old friends. It's a great tradition that will span time to help keep memories alive."
The St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets have road games on tap tonight in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
The Merchants (15-14-4) visit the Spruce Grove Regals (7-24-3) at 7:30 p.m. at Grant Fuhr Arena and the Jets (23-7-4) play the Edmonton Mustangs (9-24) at 8 p.m. at Bill Hunter Arena.
The Jets and North Edmonton Red Wings (23-8-3) are battling for top spot in the west division and the fourth-place Merchants are one point ahead of the Stony Plain Flyers (15-7-3) with two games in hand.
After tonight the Merchants have four games remaining and the Jets skate three more times before the playoffs.
The Jets will start the post-season with a first-round bye and the Merchants are in position to face-off against the Flyers in the best-of-three series for the second straight year.
Sunday the Flyers defeated the Merchants 9-5 at Akinsdale Arena. Period scores were 4-1 and 5-3 for the Flyers as the Merchants' home record dropped to 7-9-1.
The Flyers pumped in four consecutive goals, including a pair on the power play, in the first period after Connor Tupala opened the scoring with an unassisted shorthanded marker.
Cam Mazur, Stephen Cretain (power play), Andy Barr and Matt Havens also netted goals and Brenden Passek added two assists.
Shots were even at 31 apiece. Ethan Crotty (7-8, 4.40 GAA) let in seven goals on 19 shots during 45 minutes of action and Ryen Papirny (8-10, 4.56 GAA) stopped 10 of 12 shots.
The Merchants are the fifth-worst defensive team in the 14-team CJHL with a 4.58 GAA.
Friday the Merchants host the Leduc Riggers (7-25-2) at 8 p.m.
The Jets are coming off Sunday's 6-5 decision against the Beaumont Chiefs (28-5), ranked first in the east division as the No. 1 team in the CJHL.
Beaumont led 4-3 after two periods and in the third Joshua Perrott knot the score on the power play at 3:13 and Tyler Hagel sniped two goals during a 3:27 minute span. Hagel's second of the night at Ray McDonald Sports Centre was his league-high 41st goal in 28 games and his 64 points are second best in the scoring race.
Jorden Rookie also notched a pair and Brett Dubuc chipped in with one goal and two assists. Bo Cornell, Riley Van Brabant and Dean Jones had two assists apiece.
Shots were 40-32 for Beaumont and Colton Kucher (12-4, 3.22 GAA) was the winning goalie.
The Jets, winners of six of their last eight games, and the Red Wings, the Founders Cup playoff champions the last two years, hook up Sunday at 6:45 p.m. in Morinville.
The St. Albert Flyers fly into tonight's game with a near perfect record in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
Faceoff is 8 p.m. between the Flyers (25-0-1, 148 GF/33 GA) and SSAC Bulldogs (15-8-3) at Millwoods Arena.
Last weekend the north division leaders racked up wins of 7-2 against the Lloydminster Rage (3-21-1) and 5-2 against the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (4-18-2) at Akinsdale Arena.
Stuart Dovey lit up the Rage by five goals – two in the first frame, a power-play tally in the second and two more in the third – before Dominik Cesarz and Cam Aucoin capitalized with the man advantage.
Dovey is tied for the league lead in goals with 27 after the offensive outburst.
Kyle Fulton and captain Blake Sydlowski collected three assists apiece.
The shot count was 52-24 for the home team and Ryley Osland (13-0-1, 1.50 GAA) was in net.
Aucoin potted a pair against the Rangers, while Sydlowski, Cesarz and Justin MacDonald notched singles and Erik Boers added two helpers.
Sydlowski shares first place in league scoring with 56 points after the weekend homestand.
The Flyers outshot the visitors 55-21 and Evan Fradette (12-0, 1.00 GAA) was between the pipes.
After tonight the Flyers have nine games remaining before the Sutter North Cup, March 9 to 12 in Edmonton, to determine two reps for provincials, March 22 to 26 in Grande Prairie.
The seventh shutout during a 14-game winning streak for the bantam elite St. Albert Raiders was posted Saturday in the Alberta Female Hockey League.
Elle Boyko (9-1, 1.04 GAA) only had to stop six shots for her third shutout of the season in the 4-0 decision against the North Central Impact (8-11) in Leduc.
Two goals by Madison Murray and singles from Tayler Premak and Mikayla Sarapuk paced the attack.
The Raiders (16-2) haven't suffered a defeat since Nov. 2 in St. Albert and it was 2-1 against the Edmonton Pandas (7-8-2).
This weekend the top team in the north standings hosts the Peace Country Storm (1-14-2) at 7:45 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Go Auto Arena.
The Morinville Kings are one win away from advancing to the semifinals in North Central Senior AA Hockey League.
The Kings hold the upper hand against the Rocky Rams in the best-of-five opening round after victories of 11-3 in Morinville and 8-4 in Rocky Mountain House.
Game three is 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
If needed, game four is Feb. 4 at Rocky Mountain House and Game five is Feb. 4 in Morinville. Start times are 8:30 p.m.
Kyle Harris leads the Kings in playoff scoring with six goals and eight points.
Cole Cavell has seven points and Ashton Pietersma is second in goals with three.
Ty Swabb (3.50 GAA) backstopped the Kings to both wins.
In league play, Harris and Cavell shared the team lead in goals with 12.
Harris was the top point producer with 29 in 13 games, followed by Thomas Brennan with 28 in 18 games and Cavell with 26 in 16 games.
The Kings (15-3) and the Rams (5-10-3) finished second and seventh in the regular season.
The Daysland Northstars (14-1-3) have a bye into the semifinals as the pennant winners.
The Kings are winners of 11 consecutive games and the last loss was 3-1 to Daysland on Nov. 18 in Morinville.
