Tier II football
The Paul Kane Blues kick off the Tier II provincial playdowns today against the defending Alberta Bowl champions.
The north semifinal against the Lloydminster Barons starts at 3 p.m. in the Border City.
Paul Kane is 8-0 as the division two Miles conference champions in the metro Edmonton league and Lloydminster is 8-2 as the back-to-back Wheatland league playoff champion.
The winner hosts the Austin O’Brien Crusaders (6-3) of the metro Edmonton division one Carr conference or the Mighty Peace league champion St. Joseph Celtics (9-2) of Grande Prairie in the north final next Saturday for a berth in the Alberta Bowl on Nov. 22 in Raymond.
In the Football Alberta Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) rankings, AOB is third, Lloydminster (8-2) is fourth, the Celtics (9-2) are fifth and Paul Kane is seventh.
Paul Kane is 1-5 in five consecutive Tier II provincials that ended with last year’s team finishing out of the playoffs at 3-3-1.
The Paul Kane roster includes five players from the 7-3 team in 2017 that lost the Miles’ final 37-0 to the Strathcona Lords and the north semifinal 44-0 to the Celtics in Grande Prairie.
Midget AA games
St. Albert’s midget AA teams have home games scheduled today in the Northern Alberta Hockey League.
The Source for Sports Crusaders (8-0-1) host the Lloydminster Blazers (2-5) at 1:45 p.m. at Jarome Iginla Arena and the Steel (7-0) entertain the Sherwood Park Oilers (6-3-1) at 8:30 p.m. at Mark Messier Arena.
Sunday the Steel visit the Leduc Roughnecks (2-6) at 12:30 p.m.
The last win for the Steel was 3-2 against the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (3-5) last Saturday at JRC Arena as Nic Gallo scored once and assisted on goals by Gabriel Moore and Luke Aston.
Sean Mitchell, the Steel’s leading scorer with 12 points, had a pair of helpers and Liam Bell (4-0, 2.50 GAA) stopped a game-high 33 shots.
The Crusaders, winners of the last two Playoff Cups, are coming off Tuesday’s 5-3 decision against the PAC Saints (3-5-1) in St. Albert.
Jayden Crowther, Shea Spofford and Owen Bourque on the power play and Kaelan Shelton at even strength in the third period erased a 2-1 deficit after 40 minutes.
Brady Harroun opened the scoring with his team-leading 11th goal and 18th point and Shelton added two assists.
Shots were 43-32 for the Crusaders as Cole Crozier (4-0, 3.00 GAA) backstopped the team to its fifth straight win.
