The second annual St. Albert Skyhawks Invitational Tournament tips off Thursday at 3 p.m. at the SkyDome and Morinville Community High School.
Highlighting the 16-team draw are the Skyhawks (No. 1 in the 3A provincial rankings; 16-0 this season as the three-time defending provincial champions) and the Bishop O’Bryne Bobcats of Calgary (No. 1 in 4A).
Also ranked provincially are the Chestermere Lakers (No. 3 in 3A), Edmonton Christian Lions (No. 6 in 3A), Morinville Wolves (No. 10 in 3A), Wetaskiwin Sabres (3A honourable mention) and St. Francis Xavier Rams (4A honourable mention).
The Miles Macdonell Buckeyes of Winnipeg and James Mahoney Saints of Saskatoon are the out-of-province teams.
The Bowness Trojans, Ernest Manning Griffins, Bishop Carroll Cardinals and Bishop Grandin Ghosts hail from Calgary.
Rounding out the draw are the Grande Prairie Warriors, St. Joseph Celtics of Grande Prairie and the W.P. Wagner Warriors.
Thursday’s games are as follows:
SkyDome
3 p.m. Skyhawks vs. W.P. Wagner
4:45 p.m. Ernest Manning vs. SFX
6:15 p.m. Bishop O’Bryne vs. Wetaskiwin
8 p.m. Chestermere vs. Grande Prairie
Morinville
3 p.m. Bowness vs. St. Joseph
4:45 p.m. Miles Macdonell vs. Bishop Carroll
6:15 p.m. James Mahoney vs. Bishop Grandin
8 p.m. Morinville vs. Edmonton Christian
The winners advance to the championship side and the losing teams compete in the consolation bracket.
Saturday the consolation playoff is 12 p.m., the third-place game is 2 p.m. and the final is 4 p.m. at the SkyDome.
The St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets renew their junior B rivalry Friday at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The Merchants lead the season series 2-1. The Jets won 4-3 in overtime in October and the Merchants were victorious in Morinville 3-2 in November and 7-6 in December.
The Jets (21-11) are ranked third in the west division and the Merchants (18-12-4) are fifth in the standings.
Sunday the Merchants lost 4-1 to the first-place Spruce Grove Regals (26-6-3) in St. Albert to finish 3-4-1 in January and the Jets improved to 8-0 this month in the 10-0 drubbing of the last-place Stony Plain Flyers (2-31) in Morinville.
The Jets are averaging 45.5 penalty minutes per game as the most penalized team in the league.
