The St. Albert Merchants banked their first win of the season in Friday's junior B exhibition debut.
Five different Money Men scored in the 5-3 decision against the Spruce Grove Regals at Akinsdale Arena.
"Both teams dressed a young team and sat some vets," said head coach Scott Rodda.
Mike Bruni, Josh Jewell and Matt Barker found the back of the net during a six-minute span to make it 3-1 in the first period after the Regals opened the scoring.
Stephen Cretain tallied in the middle frame and Brendan Bow capitalized on the power play in the third.
John Smith and Ethan Maertens-Poole shared net duties and faced 24 shots between them.
"The line of Jake Mercier, Stephen Cretain and vet Thomas Rotundo had a strong game both offensively and defensively," Rodda said. "On the back end, rookies' Logan McKay and Daniel Sparatof were very solid."
Rotundo, Bruni, Jewell, Martens-Poole, Jordan MacPhee, Zach Gonek, Jared Kwasney and captain Dan Rombough are returning Merchants in the lineup.
Mercier played last season for the midget AAA KC Pats and complied six goals and 11 assists in 31 games.
Cretain is a midget AA product of the St. Albert Blues and Bow, McKay and Matt Laird skated last season for the 42-17-4 St. Albert Crusaders, the Fountain Tire Cup finalists in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League.
The next player audition is the Blue/White intersquad game Friday at 8 p.m.
The Merchants are also hoping to line up an exhibition Sunday at home.
The Capital Junior B Hockey League season starts Sept. 18, when the Merchants visit the Fort Saskatchewan Hawks at 8 p.m. at JRC Arena.
The home opener is Sept. 20 against the Beverly Warriors at 8 p.m.
Last season, the Merchants finished 32-6 for their second-straight Challenge Cup pennant after going 34-3-1 in 2013/14.
In the playoffs, the Merchants bowed out in the quarterfinals to the Stony Plain Flyers and all three losses in the best-of-five series were in St. Albert.
Junior B Jets
This weekend, the Morinville Jets host a four-team preseason tournament at Ray McDonald Sports Centre and admission is free.
Friday's game times are 6 p.m. between the Jets and Flyers and 8:15 p.m. between the Leduc Riggers and Edmonton Mustangs.
Saturday, the Flyers play the Mustangs at 6:15 p.m. The Jets versus Leduc will follow that game at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, the Flyers and Leduc skate at 4:45 p.m. and the Jets face-off against the Mustangs at 7 p.m.
Last season, the Jets placed third in the west standings at 24-11-3 and in the playoffs swept the Mustangs in the best-of-three opening round before losing three straight to the North Edmonton Red Wings in the quarterfinals.
The Red Wings went on to win the Founders Cup and provincials and were the Keystone Cup silver medallists at westerns.
League play starts Sept. 20 for the Jets against the Red Wings at 6:45 p.m. in Morinville.
