The Boston Pizza Cup men’s provincial championship starts rocking the ice today at the Leduc Recreation Centre.
Ranked first to 12 at provincials are rinks skipped by Kevin Koe (2012 champion), Kevin Martin (2010 Olympic gold medallist), Jamie King (St. Albert), Brendan Bottcher (Saville Centre), Brent Bawel (Saville Centre), Charley Thomas (Calgary), Kurt Balderston (Grande Prairie), Wade White (Saville Centre), Matt Blandford (Calgary), James Pahl (Strathcona County), Aaron Sluchinski (Airdrie) and Graham Powell (Grande Prairie).
At 9:30 a.m. White, with Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert at second, plays Blandford. The winner goes to the 6:30 p.m. game against Koe.
The 6:30 p.m. draw includes King (throws lead rocks and calls the game for Jeff Erickson, Scott Pfeifer and Blake MacDonald) against Thomas or Sluchinski and Martin (St. Albert product Marc Kennedy at second) against Balderson or Pahl.
The qualifying finals are 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday.
The winner of Sunday’s 2 p.m. final advances to the Brier, March 2 to 10 at Rexall Place.
Visit www.2013bostonpizzacup.com for draw times and results.
Tonight at 7:45 p.m. the St. Albert Flyers host the KC Centennials at Akinsdale Arena in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
The Flyers (16-5-5) are undefeated in 10 games as the north division co-leaders.
Last month the Flyers beat the Centennials (10-11-3) 4-2 in Edmonton.
The second annual Stadnyk Frozen Ring tournament starts 8 a.m. Friday at Flagstone rink.
The 47-game draw features 24 ringette teams in U10 novice and U12 petite.
St. Albert teams are the Hot Shots, Blitz, Ring Rebels, Sonic and Troublemakers in U10, Selects and Elite in U12 A and Rage and Sugar Rush in U12 B.
Teams from Medicine Hat, Calgary, Lacombe, Hinton, Leduc, Beaumont, Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan and Spruce Grove are also entered.
In the round robin every team plays two outdoor games at the Willoughby and Flagstone rinks and one game at either the Servus Credit Union Place, Akinsdale, Kinex or Canadian Athletic Club arenas.
Sunday’s semifinals and finals are outdoors. The finals are 2 p.m. at Willoughby in U12 B, 2:30 p.m. at Flagstone in U10 final and 3:30 p.m. at Willoughby in U12 A.
