The St. Albert Raiders march into the playoff round at the 34th annual Mac’s midget AAA hockey tournament in Calgary with an undefeated record in pool play.
The quarter-finals and semifinals are scheduled for today and Sunday’s final at the Saddledome will be aired on Shaw TV at 6 p.m.
The top teams in the five pools and three wild cards made the playoffs.
The Raiders finished 4-0 in their pool after blasting the Valley West (B.C.) Hawks 10-1 Thursday. The Raiders capitalized four times on the power play in the first period. The team’s player of the game was Kyler Hehn with one goal and three assists. Trace Elson sniped three goals and Mitch McNamara and Thomas Foster potted a pair each. Connor Dea and Ty Stanton also scored. Shots were 29-18 for the Raiders. In net was Landon Bow.
The Raiders opened the tournament with a 4-1 win against the Vancouver NE Chiefs. The game star was Luc Lalor with one goal. Elson added two assists and Wyatt Hoflin faced 27 shots.
Foster was the game star with two goals in the 2-1 win against the Saskatoon Contacts. Hehn assisted on both goals and Hoflin stopped 33 shots.
A late goal by Hehn was the game winner in the 3-2 decision against the Calgary Royals. McNamara, the game star, and Tyler Mrkonjic scored and Hoflin made 25 saves.
A playoff berth was at stake Friday for the St. Albert Slash in the female division at the Mac’s midget AAA tournament.
The score between the Slash and Calgary Flyers was unavailable at press time. The teams were tied at 2-0-1 for top spot in their pool.
The first-place finishers in the three pools and one wild card will compete in today’s semifinals. Sunday’s final at Max Bell Arena will be aired on Shaw TV at 2 p.m.
In the round-robin the Slash rallied to tie the Medicine Hat Tigers 2-2. They also defeated the Prince Albert Bears 5-1 and the Thompson-Okanagan Rockets 5-0. Emily Mitchell stopped 10 shots for the shutout. She was also the Slash player of the game against the Tigers with 32 saves. Deanna Morin was the game star against the Bears and Eliza Snider was the top player against the Rockets.
