The last home game before the playoffs for the St. Albert Merchants ended with another victory over the Morinville Jets in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
Friday’s 6-1 triumph by the Merchants (20-12-4) marked the third win in four games against the Jets (21-13).
The Merchants scored three times in the opening period and led 4-0 before Nathan Barr scored for the Jets with 13:41 left in the game.
Merchants captain Brady Reid tallied twice and Mike Roeleveld picked up four assists. Casey Reid, Blair Macuch, Jamie Umbach and Stefan Meunier also scored against Austin Witter, the Jets’ affiliate netminder.
The winning netminder was Justin Pawlenchuk.
The Merchants cashed in four power-play goals against the league’s most penalized team. The Jets were whistled for 23 infractions for 81 minutes and the Merchants had 10 infractions for 30 times.
The loss ended an eight-game winning streak for the Jets.
Sunday the Merchants posted a 5-4 shootout win against the Strathcona Bruins (14-18-4) in Fultonvale and the Jets fell 8-6 to the Beverley Warriors (23-10-2) in Edmonton.
The Merchants close out the regular season on the road Friday against the Fort Saskatchewan Hawks (18-16-2) and Sunday against the Warriors at Londonderry Arena. Game times are 8 p.m.
The Jets have three home games remaining at the Ray McDonald Sports Centre before the playoffs. They host the Stony Plain Flyers (2-34) Friday at 8:30 p.m., the North Edmonton Red Wings (22-11-1) Sunday at 6:45 p.m. and the Warriors on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.
If the playoffs were to start today, the fourth-place Merchants and fifth-place Jets would battle in the west division’s best-of–three opening round.
The St. Albert Slash have two games remaining before they play the Sherwood Park Fury in the opening playoff round in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League.
Tonight the Slash (13-12-5) skate against the first-place Edmonton Thunder (23-3-4) at 8:45 p.m. at Castledowns Arena and Saturday they host the Highwood Raiders (10-11-9) at 2:15 p.m. at Northstar Hyundai Arena.
In the north division, 20 points separate the third-place Slash and last-place Fury (3-22-5).
The Slash outscored the Fury 21-5 in four wins this season.
The best-of-three series starts Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. at Northstar Hyundai Arena.
Last weekend on home ice the Slash posted a 2-1 win against the south division-leading Southeast Tigers (20-5-6) of Medicine Hat. Charity Price and Rebecca Wall scored and Andrea Dombowsky (7-5-1, 2.84 GAA) stopped a game-high 37 shots.
The regular season for the St. Albert Sabres wraps up this weekend at Akinsdale Arena in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
The Sabres (8-15-7) host the Canadian Athletic Club (12-15-5) Saturday at 3:45 p.m. and the Grande Prairie Storm (4-23-3) Sunday at 11 a.m.
In the race for the fourth and last playoff spot in the nitro north division the Sabres trailed the Canadians by six points with two fewer games played going into Tuesday’s contest against the Camrose Vikings (1-26-3) in St. Albert. The score was unavailable at press time.
Next week the fourth-place finisher will face off against the SSAC Southgate Lions (27-1-3) in the best-of-three opening playoff round.
Sunday the Sabres lost 4-1 to the Lloydminster Heat (21-4-6) in the Border City. Ryan Cox scored and Josh Dechaine (four GA on 29 shots) and Matt Murray (19 saves) shared netminding duties.
