The St. Albert Raiders can grab a stranglehold on the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League north division final with a victory tonight against the Lloydminster Bobcats.
Faceoff is 7:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
Sunday in the Border City the Raiders rallied from a two-goal deficit to win the best-of-five series opener 3-2.
Eamon Moloy, an affiliate from the midget AA St. Albert Blues, scored in the second period and in the third Kole Bryks tied it with 9:09 to play and Parker AuCoin’s team-leading third playoff goal, an unassisted marker with 3:10 remaining in regulation time, was the game winner.
Shots were 30-23 for the Bobcats.
Raiders netminder Pat Dea (6-2, 1.69 GAA and .946 save percentage) started his eighth-straight playoff game.
Game three is 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Lloydminster.
If needed, game four is 6:45 p.m. Monday at Akinsdale and game five is 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Lloydminster.
The winner of the Joe Cherrington Memorial Trophy as the north division champion will play the Red Deer Chiefs or Calgary Buffaloes in the best-of-five AMHL provincial final.
In the north standings the Bobcats (24-9-2) finished tied for first and the Raiders (18-11-6) placed fifth.
The Bobcats recorded the most wins in the AMHL as the highest scoring team. The Raiders are the No. 1 defensive team in the north and ranked second overall defensively in the league.
In the season series the Bobcats beat the Raiders 4-0 in St. Albert and 5-3 at home.
The St. Albert Nordic Ski Club’s annual Loppet should be good to go Sunday at Kingswood Park after it was postponed twice because of cold weather.
The mass start times are 2 p.m. for the classic technique Loppet and 3 p.m. for the sprint classic relays for six- to 13-year-olds.
Bib pickups at the Kingswood shelter are 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. for the Loppet and 2:45 p.m. for the relays.
Online registrations continue until Friday at www.Zone4.ca. The fee is $5 for the Loppet and the relays are free.
As of Monday, 99 skiers had registered for the Loppet.
Loppet distances range from the 1.5-kilometre stadium loop to 20 km (four laps).
Relay distances are 50 metres for ages six to eight, 75m for ages nine and 10 and 100m for ages 11 to 13.
Visit www.stanski.ca for more information.
