A season-high five-game winning streak ended Sunday for the St. Albert Merchants in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
The Edmonton Mustangs broke a 3-3 tie halfway through the third period and then made it 5-3 with 8:07 to play, en route to the 5-4 decision at Bill Hunter Arena.
The Mustangs led 2-0 after 20 minutes. Cam Mazur (16th) and Tyler Mork (sixth) replied in the second before the Mustangs regained the lead with 2:34 left in the period.
Krys Kraychy (10th) pulled the Merchants even at 2:14 of the third and Brendan Passek (10th) closed out the scoring with 45 seconds to play.
The Merchants were outshot 36-34 and Ty Clelland (15-11, 3.73 GAA) was in net.
The result left the Merchants (19-11-2) five points back of the second-place Mustangs (22-7-1) in the west division.
The fifth victory in a row for the Merchants was Friday’s 7-2 drubbing of the last-place Spruce Grove Regals (5-25-2) at Akinsdale Arena.
Tristan Gavin’s four-point night included his fifth and sixth goals of the season.
Jared Kwasney fired his eighth goal, a team high for defencemen, and Casey Reid (14th), Mork, Kraychy and Passek also scored.
Taylor Lotoski, a new addition to the roster, chipped in with two assists.
Shots were 47-38 for the Merchants and Ryan Papirny (4-2, 3.32 GAA) posted the win as the Merchants improved to 9-6 on home ice.
The Merchants host the first-place North Edmonton Red Wings (23-6-2) Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday’s game time against the Strathcona Bruins (8-22-2) of the east division is 3:30 p.m. at Strathcona Olympiette Centre.
The North Central Senior AA Hockey League playoffs start Saturday for the Morinville Kings in Tofield.
Game time is 8 p.m. against the host Satelites.
The best-of-five north division semifinal resumes Jan. 30 at 8:30 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre and Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. in Tofield.
If needed, game four is Feb. 6 at 8:30 p.m. in Morinville and game five is Feb. 7 at 5:30 p.m. in Tofield.
The winner will play the first-place Bonnyville Pontiacs (15-1) or fourth-place Whitecourt Wild (7-9) in the best-of-five north final.
In the season series, the third-place Kings (8-7-1) lost 7-3 to the second-place Satelites (11-4-1) in Morinville and won 6-4 in Tofield.
The Kings wrapped up league play in Saturday’s 8-5 victory over the Wild in Morinville.
Period scores were 3-2 Wild and 5-3 Kings
Neil Tarnasky struck at even strength and on the power play and Brayden Arcand collected three assists.
Gerald Desjarlais, D.J. Giacobbo (power play), Shamus Graham (power play), Jamie Johnson, Thomas Brennan (empty net) and Keegan Arcand (shorthanded/empty net) also scored and Dalen Paul, Johnson and Brennan added two assists apiece.
The Kings were outshot 42-39 and Chris Sharkey (8-6, 3.92 GAA) was the winning goalie.
Johnson led the Kings in scoring this season with 14 assists and 18 points in nine games. Brayden Arcand was second in points with 17 in 13 games and Paul was second in goals with eight in 13 games. Riley Miller was the sin-bin leader with 84 minutes in 10 games.
Six local hockey players were selected to the Zone 5 (Black Gold/Yellowhead) team for the 2016 Alberta Winter Games.
Defenceman Marc Lajoie and forwards Jaxon Dube, Zack Ostapchuk and Ethan Sundir of St. Albert and forwards Tyson Greenway and Vincent Lamanna of Sturgeon County are gong to the Feb 13 to 16 competition in Medicine Hat.
The multi-sport event is for developing athletes 11 to 17 years old.
The next game for the St. Albert Slash in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League is Sunday against the Lloydminster Steelers in the Border City.
Face-off is 3:45 p.m. in the Border City between the sixth-place Slash (8-11-5) and eighth-place Steelers (6-14-2).
Last weekend, the Slash fell 3-2 to the first-place Rocky Mountain Raiders (16-3-3) in DeWinton.
Katie Runnalls (second) and Danielle Cox (ninth) scored and Natalie Bender (2-6-4, 1.93 GAA) stopped a game-high 34 shots.
