The St. Albert Merchants are back in business in time for the playoffs.
The Money Men opened the new year by defeating the top team in the Capital Junior B Hockey League and the 5-3 decision against the Edmonton Royals will set the stage for a long post-season run.
“It was a great effort despite being short players due to injuries and illnesses. It was a real test of our character and proving that when we put our minds to it we are capable of competing with any team in the league,” said Scott Rodda, head coach of the 16-10-2 Merchants.
The Challenge Cup pennant winners the last two years are now one point shy of third place and seven back of second spot in the west standings.
“We will need to continue working hard down the stretch with only 10 games to go until playoffs,” Rodda said. “We still have our sights on catching a few teams ahead of us in the standings. If we can manage to be more consistent on our discipline and solidify our special teams we have a real shot at improving our position for playoffs.”
The glue that’s held the Merchants together during their rebuilding campaign is the six returning players.
“We continue to get strong leadership from our veterans and this will become more important for the second season, the playoffs,” Rodda said.
In the first win after going 3-2 in December, the Merchants spread the offence around with five different scorers and Mason Kenny drew two assists against the east-division Royals (22-6) at Confederation Arena.
The eighth goal this season by Krys Kraychy snapped a 3-3 stalemate two minutes into the third period and Thomas Rotundo deposited his 11th goal into an empty net.
Mitchell Walters opened the scoring on the power play with his second goal and in the middle frame the Merchants pulled even twice on Jake Mercier’s 15th and Cam Mazur’s 14th.
Shots were 37-21 for the Merchants and netminder Ty Clelland (13-10, 3.78 GAA) recorded the win.
The Merchants play their first home game since Dec. 4, when they host the archrival Morinville Jets (12-15-1) Friday at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The last win for the fifth-place Jets was 7-1 over the Merchants on Dec. 13 in Morinville.
In previous tilts with the Merchants, the Jets fell 6-2 Oct. 16 in St. Albert and 7-3 Nov. 21 in Morinville after going 1-3 last season and 0-3-1 in 2013/14 against their CJHL foes.
The Jets trail the Merchants by nine points after Sunday’s 9-5 road loss to the Wetaskiwin Icemen (18-7-2).
A melee with 77 seconds remaining resulted in suspensions to five players totalling 12 games – Travis McLauchlin (three) and Sam Chorney (one) of the Jets and Brennan Hunker (four), Tristan Lindberg (three) and Jesse Zorn (one) of the Icemen.
The Icemen lit up the Jets for six straight goals before the Jets replied to make it 6-2 at 6:17 of the second.
The Jets were led offensively by Tyler Hagel’s three goals and one assist, Brandon Dubuc’s two goals and two assists and Lee Gadoury’s two assists.
Hagel ranks fifth in goals with 30 and ninth in points with 50 in 28 games in the CJHL scoring race.
Dubuc is seventh in goals with 27 and 10th in points with 48 in 27 games.
The Jets were outshot 45-44 and Jordan Greenfield (three GA on 17 shots in 35 minutes) and Lawrence Rosychuk (six GA on 28 shots in 25 minutes) split time between the pipes.
ICE CHIPS: The Merchants play the Beverly Warriors (16-9-3) Sunday at 8 p.m. in St. Albert and the Jets entertain the Edmonton Mustangs (20-6-1) at 6:45 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
The rosters have been announced for the CJHL rookie and all-star games Jan. 16 in Fort Saskatchewan.
Representing the Merchants are Mazur, Mercier and Daniel Spatafora in the rookie game at noon and Dan Rombough, Casey Reid and Matt Havens in the 4 p.m. all-star game.
The Jets are sending Chorney, Brett Dubuc and Taylor Holterhus to the rookie game and Greenfield, Hagel, Brandon Dubuc and Jordan Rooke to the all-star game.
The skills competition starts at 2:30 p.m.
The status of Havens, the Merchants’ top scorer with 23 goals and 47 points in 22 games, was unclear for this weekend after suffering a concussion with an elbow to the head in the opening minute in last month’s loss to the Jets and has not played since.
