Tuesday’s showdown between the two St. Albert teams in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League ended in victory for the defending Fountain Tire Cup playoff champions.
Brendan Bow, Ryan Laird, Kris Kraychy and Zach Tisi of the Crusaders scored in the 4-1 decision over the Blues at Mark Messier Arena.
Laird’s coast-to-coast unassisted effort broke a 1-1 tie with 6:17 left in the first period.
Kraychy’s 24th goal made it 3-1 on the power play nine minutes into the second.
Mitch Kruk opened the scoring for the Blues and netminder Keaton Aubin (7-7-1, 3.17 GAA) faced a game-high 31 shots.
Connor McKay (8-3-3, 2.86 GAA) was tested 19 times by the Blues.
The Crusaders (19-5-4) are the top team in the Clean Harbors division and their 42 points ranked third overall in the 27-team circuit.
The Blues (13-14-3) are sitting sixth out of seven teams in the Inside Edge division.
Friday the Crusaders travelled to Wetaskiwin to play the Ice Kings (15-7-7) but the score was unavailable at press time.
Tonight the Crusaders entertain the Grande Prairie Storm (21-6-1) at 8:30 p.m. at Mark Messier and Sunday the visit SSAC Lakewood Chevrolet (17-7-5) at 1:30 p.m. at Confederation Arena.
Sunday the Blues play CAC Butchers & Packers (17-5-6) at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The regular season wraps up tonight for the St. Albert Slash in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League.
Game time is 7:30 p.m. against the Spruce Grove PAC Saints at Troy Murray Arena.
The Slash (15-11-5) are tied for fourth and the Saints (14-14-3) are eighth in the 10-team standings.
The Slash are 1-4 in 2015 after Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the third-place Edmonton Thunder (17-9-6), the six-time reigning AMMFHL champions and 2014 Esso Cup national silver medallists.
Alexandra Poznikoff’s league-leading 24th goal and 42nd point in the opening minute of the second period stood the test of time at Go Auto Arena.
Ariana Kresic of the Thunder stopped 19 shots as the Slash suffered their second shutout loss in three games and fifth of the season.
Erynn Shantz (10-6-3, 1.46 GAA) faced 32 shots.
The playoffs kick off Feb. 23. The top six teams receive a first-round bye and the next four teams play a best-of-three series for spots in the best-of-five second round, starting March 2.
The St. Albert Flyers have two road games on tap this weekend in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
The midget 15 Flyers visit the Sherwood Park Squires today at 2:15 p.m. and Sunday’s game against the SSAC Bulldogs starts at 6:15 p.m. at Callingwood Arena.
The Flyers (22-3-5) are four points in front of the third-place Squires (20-5-5) and four behind the first-place Bulldogs (26-2-1) in the north division.
The Flyers are winners of four in a row after Tuesday’s 2-0 decision over the fourth-place Maple Leafs (14-12-6) at Akinsdale Arena.
Chris Curr (13-1-3, 2.33 GAA) stopped a game-high 35 shots while posting his second shutout and the team’s third of the season.
It was scoreless until Leif Mattson sniped his league-high 41st goal 68 seconds into the third period and a few minutes later assisted on Joshua Antunes’ insurance marker.
Mattson is the league’s top scorer with 79 points in 29 games.
The Flyers are 14-0-2 in their last 16 games after losing 6-2 to CAC United Cycle (16-14) Nov. 23.
The team’s home record is also 14-0-2.
Results this weekend against the top two teams in the nitro north division will determine who the St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres will play in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League playoffs.
The Sabres (15-12-4) host the SSAC Southgate Lions (19-9-3) today at 3:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena and Sunday they skate in Sherwood Park against the Flyers (24-5-3) in the last game before the opening best-of-three series starts Tuesday.
The Sabres are 2-2 against SSAC and 0-2-1 against the Flyers.
Last year the Sabres lost two straight to SSAC in the first round after missing the 2013 playoffs.
The third-place Sabres are ranked one point ahead of the Canadian Athletic Club (16-15-1) with a game in hand after Tuesday’s 5-1 victory over the Maple Leafs (4-25-3) at Castledowns Arena.
It’s the third consecutive win for the Sabres after going 1-4 to start the new year.
