Monday’s showdown between St. Albert’s midget AA teams in the Northern Alberta Hockey League starts at 8:30 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
The Blues (18-5-2, 103 GF/53 GA) and Crusaders (16-8-2, 98 GF/65 GA) are No. 1 in their respective divisions in the league’s Metro conference.
Last weekend the Blues skated to a 2-2 draw against the GPAC Storm (10-7-7) in Clairmont and lost 3-1 to the host Whitecourt Wolverines (18-5-1) while going 4-1-2 in January.
Zach Carlson is the team’s top scorer with 19 goals and 42 points in 23 games.
The Crusaders are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Camrose Vikings (10-7-5) and 4-0 win over the Lloydminster Blazers (5-14-3) last weekend in St. Albert to end the month with a record of 4-1-1.
The Crusaders are led by Kiegan Miller’s 18 goals and 32 points in 22 games.
Tonight the Crusaders visit the Beaumont Braves (17-6-2) at 6 p.m.
The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres wrap up the regular season with four games in six days, starting today in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
Faceoff is 1:15 p.m. against the Flyers (11-17-5) in Sherwood Park.
The Sabres also play the Maple Leafs (13-13-6) Monday at Clareview Arena and the Canadian Athletic Club (9-17-5) Tuesday at Castledowns Arena. Game times are 8 p.m.
The last game before the playoffs for the first-place Sabres (27-1-4, 195 GF/70 GA) is Thursday versus the KC Squires (13-9-8) at 7 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The Sabres and Flyers are expected to square-off in the best-of-three Nitro north division opening playoff round.
The Sabres are 1-0-2 after hosting the recent John Reid Memorial Tournament and 5-0-3 in January.
The next game for the St. Albert Royals is Monday in the Rural & Edmonton Midget 15 AA Hockey League.
Faceoff is 8:15 p.m. against CAC Volvo (9-12-3) at Callingwood Arena.
The Royals (15-6-3) are ranked third in the eight-team standings.
The last home game before the playoffs was Friday’s 1-0 decision against first-place SSAC Besa (19-5) at Mark Messier Arena.
Mats Olson scored in the second period, with Jared Gibeau and Cody Shepardson assisting on the play, and Josh Ironside (9-1-2, 1.83 GAA) stopped a game-high 38 shots for his third shutout of the season and the team’s sixth.
Caleb Caines leads the Royals in scoring with 19 goals and 29 points in 23 games.
