The St. Albert Merchants were eliminated in the seventh and deciding game in the Capital Junior B Hockey League semifinals in Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Wetaskiwin Icemen in front of a full house at Akinsdale Arena.
The Icemen capitalized twice on the power play in the first period and with 6:15 left in regulation time made it 3-1 with an even-strength goal.
Mike Roeleveld of the Merchants ended Chris Sharkey’s shutout bid with 9:28 to play.
With 21 seconds remaining, Roeleveld scored his team-leading seventh goal and 17th point.
Brayden Switner assisted on both goals.
The Merchants finished 0-for-5 on the power play.
Justin Pawlenchuk (8-6, 3.06 GAA in 844 minutes played) started his 14th straight playoff game.
The win was the Icemen’s third in St. Albert in the series.
After losing game four 5-2 in Wetaskiwin, the Merchants kept their season alive with victories of 5-3 at home and 6-1 on the road last weekend.
It was the deepest playoff run by the Merchants in several years. They swept the Edmonton Mustangs in the best-of-three qualifying round and went the distance in the best-of-five quarter-finals to defeat the Beverley Warriors. Three games against Beverly were decided in overtime. In game one Merchants’ captain Brady Reid scored the 5-4 OT winner in Edmonton. Beverly won game four 3-2 in the fourth OT period in St. Albert. In game five Roeleveld tied it on the power play goal with 21 seconds to go after Beverly went ahead with 69 seconds to play and in the extra period Blair Macuch sniped the 4-3 series winner for the visitors.
In league play the Merchants (22-12-4) finished third in the west division and the Icemen (25-12-1) placed second in the east standings.
The Icemen swept the season series 4-3 in overtime at home in October and 6-4 in December in St. Albert.
The Icemen will now play the Sherwood Park Knights in the best-of-five Founders Cup final. Both teams will also represent the league at the April 4 to 7 provincials in Wainwright.
The last Founders Cup championship for the Merchants was 2005.
The St. Albert Flyers completed the round-robin portion of the midget 15 provincials Friday with games against the Lethbridge Hurricanes and AC Avalanche.
Scores from Terwillegar Recreation Centre were unavailable at press time.
The top four finishers in the six-team draw skate today in the semifinals at Bill Hunter Arena. Game times are 11 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.
Sunday the third-place game goes at 11 a.m. and the final is 2 p.m. at Bill Hunter.
Visit www.ammhl.ca for results.
The Flyers were 2-1 at provincials after Thursday’s results.
The second win for the north division pennant winners in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League was 5-4 against the host SSAC Bulldogs.
In the third period, after the Bulldogs tallied twice, Curtis Peck tied it at 13:43 on the penalty kill and Ethan Lazaro’s hat-trick marker at 14:45 was the winner.
Liam Thomas made it 3-1 halfway through the second.
The Flyers were outshot 18-4 in the third and 41-17 overall. In net was Pat Dea, the league’s MVP.
Earlier in the day, the Flyers fell 5-1 to the Sherwood Park Squires in a rematch of the North Cup playoff final, a 4-3 double overtime victory by St. Albert on March 10 in Camrose.
The Squires led 1-0 after the first and 2-1 entering the third. Tristan Gavin scored for the Flyers. Shots were 33-19 for the Squires. Dea was in net.
Wednesday in the provincial opener for the Flyers, Lazaro potted a pair in the middle frame in the 4-2 win over CRAA Royals Blue. Thomas Friesen and captain Brendan Kallis also scored. The Flyers were outshot 39-28 and Dea was between the pipes.
Then Flyers were 17-1-3 in their last 21 games going into provincials. They are the No. 1 seed in the six-team draw based on their 21-6-5 league record.
Last year the Flyers finished third at provincials in Calgary.
