The St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets will exchange Christmas greetings in Friday’s rivalry game at Akinsdale Arena.
The festivities start at 8 p.m. between the Capital Junior B Hockey League combatants.
Four wins and six points separate the third-place Jets (12-8-1, 85 GF/71 GA) and sixth-place Merchants (8-10-3, 84 GF/88 GA) in the west standings.
The Jets also beat the Merchants twice this season by scores of 6-3 in September at St. Albert and 6-2 last month at Morinville.
“It’s always an exciting game and an easy one to get up for,” said Zach Rodda, head coach of the Merchants. “As a team we are going to focus on playing a complete 60 minutes of Merchants’ hockey and really push the pace. We haven’t played to our potential against them yet this year, so we have something to prove for sure.”
The Merchants are playing their best hockey of the season with three wins in the last four games while recording points in seven of the last nine games while going 4-2-3 in that span.
“We are definitely trending in the right direction these past few weeks,” Rodda said.
Tonight at 8 p.m. the Merchants face off against the North Edmonton Red Wings (17-3-2), the west division leaders.
“The Red Wings are always a tough opponent. It will be a good test for us coming off a comeback overtime win against Stony Plain,” Rodda said.
The fourth victory in six games was 7-6 against the visiting Stony Plain Flyers (10-12-2) Sunday as Ryan Cooper’s second goal and third point of the night was the winner with 39 seconds left in sudden death.
The Flyers tallied three times during a three-minute span late in the middle period to make it 6-4 and in the third the Merchants pulled even with goals by Sam Milner at 16:30 and Peter Corrigan at 17:47.
In the first period, Ben Kuny scored in his Merchants’ debut and Tyler Schnirer’s first of the season knotted it at two.
Cooper and Matt Holzer found the back of the net in the second.
Holzer, Corrigan and Milner also picked up two assists apiece.
Shots were 6-2 in OT and 61-50 overall for the Flyers as Brandon Boughen (4-9, 4.38 GAA) went the distance for the Merchants.
The team’s home record is 7-3-2 after closing the gap to three points on the fifth-place Flyers with three games in hand.
Sunday the Merchants challenge the Beverly Warriors (16-7) at 8 p.m. at Clareview Arena.
Red-hot Jets
The Jets streak into tonight’s tilt with the Edmonton Mustangs (11-10-2) as winners of 10 of their last 11 games. Puck drop is 8 p.m. at Bill Hunter Arena.The third consecutive victory for the Jets was 6-2 over the Spruce Grove Regals (4-21) Sunday at Ray MacDonald Sports Centre.
Brett Dubuc’s shorthanded marker to close out the scoring was his fourth point of the contest.
Dubuc leads the CJHL with 26 goals and 48 points in 21 games.
Lee Gadoury capitalized on the power play while Josh Regan and Mitchell Kurbrak posted their first goals of the season.
Connor Tuppala and Jacob Pink also lit the lamp with the man advantage.
Tuppala added two assists and Tyler Sonnichsen chipped in with three helpers.
The Jets racked up 49 shots in support of Colton Kucher (8-6, 3.06 GAA) compared to 29 for the Regals.
Dubuc’s second goal Friday was the 3-2 OT winner against the Flyers in Stony Plain.
Ryan Denton also connected and Gadoury had two assists as the Jets outshot the Flyers 43-29 with Kucher tending the twine.
The Jets are 6-4-1 on home ice with six straight wins when they host the Fort Saskatchewan Hawks (12-11) Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Spirit of giving
The Merchants are holding a food and new toy drive at Friday’s home game against the Jets.New unwrapped toys for kids of all ages will be accepted for those in need during the holiday season and the St. Albert Food Bank is seeking various non-perishable items including baby formula.
The pre-game ceremony will feature a cheque presentation from all the proceeds collected at the Sept. 21 tailgate home opener, in conjunction with the Original Joe’s charity food truck which donated all the hamburgers and hotdogs in support of the Merchants’ charity of choice, the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation of Canada.
The Cosmopolitan Club of Edmonton matched the proceeds with an additional donation of $900 to top off the donation at $1,800.
Shalisa Liesch of the Cadillac Junkies will also sing the national anthem.
