Mission ringette
The Ringette Alberta AA championships are underway in Spruce Grove for the three St. Albert Mission teams in the Black Gold League.
The U14AA draw consists of nine teams competing for four spots at westerns, March 25 to 28 in Prince George, B.C.
Five of the eight U16AA teams and three of the nine U19AA teams advance to nationals, April 5 to 11 in Ottawa.
The overall records for the Mission teams before Friday’s provincial openers were 27-11-3-2 for U14AA, 35-5-2 for U16AA and 17-15-4 for U19AA.
Visit sprucegroveringette.com for results.
REM 15AA Royals
Tonight the St. Albert Royals host the Red Deer Chiefs in the Rural & Edmonton Midget 15AA Hockey League playoffs.
Faceoff is 7:30 p.m. at Kinex Arena.
The sixth-place Royals (15-11-6), third-place Red Deer (21-7-4), second-place Hockey Central Panthers (25-4-3) and seventh-place Strathcona Warriors (13-16-3) are competing in the blue pool round robin and the top two teams advance to the best-of-five semifinals.
The playoff opener for the Royals was Wednesday’s 3-2 shootout victory against the Panthers in Sylvan Lake.
Lucas Cadger stood on his head stopping 43 shots, including seven in the five-minute overtime, before sealing the deal with the last save in the shootout after the Panthers connected twice.
The Royals were credited with 23 shots overall.
Sebastian Laurent tallied twice in the first period.
The Panthers, winners of the last two REM championships against the Royals in the finals, slotted the equalizer with 2:43 left in regulation time.
Aidan Malinowski, Kaiden Jean and Andrew Despins did the damage in the shootout.
Thursday’s contest against Strathcona starts at 8:15 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
Midget 15 Flyers
Sunday marks the last home game of the season for the St. Albert Flyers in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
Puck drop is 5 p.m. against the Lloydminster Bobcats (21-11-3) at Jarome Iginla Arena.
The North Cup playoff tournament starts Thursday in Sherwood Park for 12 teams in three pools to determine the three qualifiers for the AMMHL provincials, March 19 to 22 in Red Deer.
The midget 15 Flyers (11-15-10) are ranked eighth in the north division after Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with the Canadian Athletic Club (14-16-7).
Liam Fitzgerald’s 15th goal, an unassisted shorthanded effort, opened the scoring in the first period.
Shots were 38-36 for the Flyers and Damon Cunningham (5-6-7, 3.73 GAA) was in net.
The Flyers are 2-0-3 in the last five games.
