The 16-team lineup has been finalized for the 2014 John Reid Memorial Tournament.
Joining the host St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres at the 36th annual St. Albert bantam AAA tournament are four international teams – HC Kometa Brno of the Czech Republic, Dallas Stars Elite, Los Angeles Jr. Kings and Phoenix Jr. Coyotes – as well as the defending champion North Shore Winter Club Hawks, Burnaby Winter Club Bruins, Pursuit of Excellence (Kelowna), Okanagan Hockey Academy (Penticton), Notre Dame Hounds, Winnipeg Monarchs, SSAC Southgate Lions, Lloydminster Heat, Spruce Grove PAC Saints, Calgary Bisons and Calgary Flames.
HC Kometa Brno, winner of its age division championship in 2013, is the first European team to compete for the championship banner.
The 2010 champion Los Angeles Selects were the first U.S. team to play in the tournament since the 2003 Seattle Sno-Kings.
Phoenix was part of the 2011 tournament and Los Angeles returned in 2012.
The tournament, renamed in Reid’s memory in 2004, runs Jan. 16 to 19 at Servus Credit Union Place.
Meanwhile, the Sabres improved to 7-6-1 in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League in Saturday’s 3-1 win over the Maple Leafs (3-12-2) at Castledowns Arena.
Tylor Jans, Ryan Cooper and Tyler Collins found the back of the net and Lucus Palladino and Jack Langenhahn had two assists apiece.
Shot were 36-24 for the Sabres and in net was Chris Curr.
Tuesday the Sabres played the Southgate Lions (12-2), the defending league, provincial and western Canadian champions, but the score was unavailable at press time.
The next home game is Saturday against Lloydminster (17-0) at 3:45 p.m.
The offensively-challenged St. Albert Raiders registered their fifth one-goal game of the season in Sunday’s 5-1 loss to the Calgary Buffaloes in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
Defenceman Brendan Kallis tallied on the power play for the lowest-scoring team in the north and the AMHL’s second worst overall with 42 in 17 games.
The Buffaloes (9-6-1) lit up the Raiders for four goals on 12 shots in the opening 20 minutes at Akinsdale Arena. Pat Dea let in three goals on 11 shots and Pat Gora was victimized once in the first frame.
Dea (5-3-1, 2.35 GAA) finished with four goals against, including two on the power play, on 19 shots in 56:50 minutes.
Friday the 16-year-old Dea dressed as the backup for the Edmonton Oil Kings against the Prince George Cougars at Rexall Place. The first netminder taken in the 2012 Western Hockey League bantam draft (22nd overall) replaced Tyler Santos with 11:21 left in period two and the Oil Kings trailing 6-1. Dea gave up two goals on 17 shots in his WHL regular-season debut, as the Oil Kings fell 8-3.
The Prince George roster featured Raiders’ graduates Troy Bourke and Tyler Mrkonjic at forward and defenceman Zach Gonek.
Sunday’s loss was the fourth in six games for the Raiders (8-7-2), ranked sixth out of 10 teams in the north.
This weekend the Raiders host the four-time reigning provincial champion Red Deer Chiefs (10-3-2) Saturday and Grande Prairie Storm (4-9-4) Sunday. Game times are 1:15 p.m.
The St. Albert Flyers can gain ground on the first-place Leduc Oil Kings with a victory Saturday in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
Faceoff against Leduc is 6:15 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
In the north division the Flyers (8-1-4) trail Leduc (12-1-1) by five points with two games in hand.
In the season opener the teams skated to a 4-4 draw Oct. 4 in Leduc.
Last weekend on home ice the Flyers doubled the Sherwood Park Squires (6-5-3) and Maple Leafs (5-7-2) by identical 4-2 scores.
Sean Richards, Jacon Waldbillig, Ryan Cox and Jake Warawa scored against the Squires and Matt Murray faced only 20 shots.
Richards, Ethan Marino, Zach Webb and Jaedon Leslie connected against the Maple Leafs and Joshua Dechaine stopped 25 shots.
The Flyers were coming off their first loss of the season, 4-0 to the Lloydminster Rage (6-3-4) Nov. 10 in the Border City.
