The St. Albert Raiders will play the Leduc Oil Kings or Fort Saskatchewan Rangers in the best-of-five north division final after defeating the South Side Athletic Club in the midget AAA playoffs.
Friday’s score from the fifth and deciding game between Leduc (24-7-3), the host team for the Telus Cup national championship in April, and the Rangers (12-16-6) was unavailable at press time.
The Raiders (21-9-4) wrapped up their best-of-five series against South Side (13-17-4) with a hard-fought 3-2 win Tuesday at Bill Hunter Arena. Sebastian Auray tallied twice and Luc Lalor scored the game winner on the power play. Tyler Kunz also frustrated South Side with four big hits.
One of the keys to the Raiders victory was successfully killing off 29 of 30 penalties in the series.
The puck drops today between the St. Albert Slash and the defending champion Edmonton Thunder in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League playoffs.
Game one in the best-of-five north division final starts at 2:15 p.m. at Mark Messier Arena.
Game two is Sunday at 7:45 p.m. at Clareview Arena.
The series continues next weekend with game three Friday at 7:45 p.m. at Callingwood Arena. If needed, game four is Saturday at 2:15 p.m. at Performance Arena and game five goes Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at Mill Woods Arena.
In the north standings the Thunder (24-5-3) and Slash (20-7-5) placed first and second, respectively.
In the regular season the Slash finished 1-1-2 against the Thunder, last year’s Esso Cup national silver medallists.
In the last two north finals between the league rivals the Thunder swept the 2010 series and last year eliminated the Slash in four games.
The series winner will play the Calgary Flyers (15-14-3) or Medicine Hat Hounds (21-7-4) for the league title.
The last game before the North Cup playoffs for the St. Albert Flyers is Sunday against CAC United Cycle in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
Face-off is 5 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena
In the north conference the Flyers (24-7-6) trail the first-place Lloydminster Rage (26-6-4) by two points.
The Flyers are coming off a 6-0 road win against the Sherwood Park Squires (10-19-8) Tuesday.
Paul Lovsin’s hat-trick and one assist gave the conference scoring leader 39 goals and 75 points in 36 games.
Brett Smythe netted his 30th goal and set up Lovsin’s three goals.
Taylor Lotoski and Nicholas Prkusic also scored and J.T. Bartlett posted the shutout with 18 saves.
The North Cup tournament starts Thursday at Terwillegar Arena. The top eight teams are divided into two pools and the rest of teams compete in the consolation pool.
