The St. Albert Slash are back on the ice tonight against the Edmonton Thunder in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League.
Start time is 8 p.m. at the Terwillegar Community Rec Centre.
Six points separate the sixth-place Slash (7-10-5) and last-place Thunder (5-12-3) in the nine-team standings.
The first game in the new year for the Slash was Saturday’s 1-0 decision against the eighth-place Lloydminster Steelers (6-12-2) in St. Albert.
Alyssa Thacker’s second goal of the season at 13:30 of the first period was the winner.
Natalie Bender (2-5-4, 1.83 GAA) stopped 30 shots for her second shutout.
The last game before the playoffs for the Morinville Kings in the North Central Senior AA Hockey League is Saturday against the Whitecourt Wild.
Faceoff is 8:30 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
Whitecourt (6-8) is three points back of the third-place Kings (7-7-1) with a game in hand in the north division.
Last weekend on the road, the Kings knocked off the second-place Tofield Satelites (10-4-1) 6-4 and lost 3-2 to the Edson Ice (4-9-1), ranked fourth in the south division.
The St. Albert Lady Raiders returned home from a weekend split in Grande Prairie within striking range of second spot in the north division of the Alberta Major Bantam Female Hockey League.
Scores were 3-1 for the fifth-place Peace Country Storm (7-11-2) and 4-1 for the third-place Raiders (9-5-4).
Elleson Rezewski scored the opening goal in the loss as the Raiders outshot the host team 32-25.
Libby Langenhahn, Andrea Gauchier, Makenna Schuttler and Tayler Premak potted goals in the rematch. Schuttler and Isabelle Lajoie also picked up two assists apiece
Shots were 41-26 for the Raiders and Natasha Borrett (4-5, 1.68 GAA) was in net.
Gauchier is the team’s top goal scorer with 10 in 18 games and shares the lead in points with Lajoie at 18 apiece.
Gauchier, Lajoie and defenceman Bria Fewchuk represented the Raiders at the recent AMBFHL all-star game in Okotoks. All three players picked up assists in the 6-1 win by the north all-stars.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the picture of the all-star trio.
The AMBFHL has a break in the schedule until Jan. 23, when the Raiders host the Southeast Tigers (4-14), the last-place team in the south, at 7:45 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
