The St. Albert Merchants are playing the waiting game to see who they will face-off against in the Capital Junior B Hockey League playoffs.
The repeat winners of the Challenge Cup as the top team in league play will watch the first round unfold in the west division before hosting the best-of-five quarter-finals.
Game one is 8 p.m. Friday at Akinsdale Arena, where the Merchants are 17-2 this season.
“Everyone is excited for Merch Madness,” said defenceman Jed Groenenboom, referring to the team’s slogan for its playoff run to the Founders Cup championship. “It’s the only hockey in St. Albert for people our age to play so it’s pretty fun that everyone jumps on board in the playoffs and as a team we’re all so excited for it. It’s so fun having that many people in the building and everyone going crazy when we score.”
The Merchants will battle the Beverly Warriors (23-11-4), Stony Plain Flyers (23-12-3) or Edmonton Mustangs (18-17-2) and the Money Men are 3-1 against each team.
“It really doesn’t matter to us who we play. A team is a team. Whoever comes our way we’re going to show them a good time in our barn and we’re going to go over to their rink and hopefully dominate them as well,” Groenenboom said.
The Merchants are banking on winning one more game than last year in the playoffs after losing the fifth and deciding contest in the final to the Fort Saskatchewan Hawks by the slimmest of margins in St. Albert.
“I have lots of confidence in our team. We’re so deep this year and we’re playing so well right now that. We’re going to have a really good playoff,” said Groenenboom, 21.
The Merchants finished 32-6 in league play after going 34-3-1 last season, en route to an overall 45-11-1 record as the fourth-place team at provincials.
“No matter where you finish, when you get into the playoffs anything can happen. Everybody gears up for it. It’s like a whole different animal on the ice. Everyone plays way differently than in the regular season and we’re going into it with that mindset,” Groenenboom said. “We can’t take any team for granted because teams can bring their A game. We’ve had a couple games this year where we were kind of sleeping and if we have a couple of those in a row that’s all it takes for teams to take advantage of us.”
The Merchants skate into the playoffs as the team to beat as winners of nine in a row after downing the Morinville Jets 10-2 Tuesday for their 19th victory in 20 games.
“It’s huge for us actually because we started the season a little rough at 5-3 and then we found our stride and how we play best as a team. We’ve stuck with that since and we’ve had a much better time of winning,” said Groenenboom, one of 15 returnees on the roster.
The second-year Merchant doubled his goal total with a rare hat-trick performance during a four-point night against the Jets at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
His first goal was a slapper that went in off the post to make it 7-2 in period two.
The second goal and the team’s eighth was scored on a breakaway off the rush from the defensive zone in the third.
The hat-trick marker was a point shot on the power play for his 22nd point in 29 games to close out the scoring with 3:15 to play.
“It was awesome. It doesn’t happen often because I’m on defence so it was kind of a treat. It was fun,” said the apprentice sprinkler installer for Tech Sprinklers. “The last time was probably summer beer league playing for fun with friends.”
The Merchants capitalized five times on the power play and the Jets scored twice with the man advantage against the league’s most penalized team at 1,422 PIM, 93 minutes more than the last-place Spruce Grove Regals (7-29-2).
Andrew Clark registered one goal and three assists, A.J. Yariwon tallied twice and Brent McGugan, Casey Reid, Mike Bruni and Mitch McNamara also scored.
Yariwon, McGugan and Reid collected three points apiece.
Captain Jorden Rooke and Lee Gadoury scored for the Jets in the first.
Shots were 18-6 for the Merchants in the third and 51-26 overall. Ty Clelland (24-1, 3.07 GAA) picked up the win and Lawrence Rosychuk (5-5, 5.06 GAA) went the distance for the Jets (24-11-3).
The Jets are ranked third in the west and are playing the Mustangs in the first round.
ICE CHIPS: Reid finished tied for 11th in the league scoring with 55 points in 33 games. His 22 goals ranked second on the team behind Mike Roeleveld’s 27 in 34 games. Roeleveld was also the Merchants’ second-highest scorer with 52 points.
Blair Macuch led the Merchants in assists with 37 in 37 games and his 46 points was third best on the team.
Mitch McNamara flexed his muscles for a team-high 187 PIM in 32 games and his twin brother, Liam, was second with 150 PIM.
Clelland also recorded the most wins among the goalies.
