Merch Madness starts Friday night for the St. Albert Merchants in the Capital Junior B Hockey League playoffs.
The Merchants host the Stony Plain Flyers at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena in game one in the best-of-three west division qualifying round.
Game two is Sunday at Glenn Hall Centennial Arena but the face-off time was unavailable at press time.
Game three, if needed, is 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Akinsdale Arena.
The winner will play the Morinville Jets or North Edmonton Red Wings, the Founders Cup champion the last two years, in the best-of-five quarter-finals.
The Merchants (18-16-4, 147 GF/173 GA) and Flyers (17-18-3, 144 GF/179 GA) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the west standings.
The Flyers have won the last three games against the Merchants by scores of 4-2 Nov. 23 and 4-3 in overtime Dec. 14 in Stony Plain and 9-5 Jan. 22 at Akinsdale Arena after losing 4-1 Oct. 23 in St. Albert.
Last year the Merchants needed double overtime in the third and deciding game of the opening playoff round against the Flyers to pull off the series victory.
Last weekend against the top two east division teams, the Merchants lost 4-1 on the road to the Beaumont Chiefs (30-7-1), ranked No. 1 in the CJHL, and posted a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Royals (29-9) in St. Albert.
Jake Mercier's 19th goal, a power-play marker in the middle frame, knotted the score at one against Beaumont.
The Merchants were outshot 50-24 and Ethan Crotty (7-9, 4.38 GAA) was in net.
Third-period goals by Tomas Rotundo and Liam Thomas pulled the Merchants past the Royals.
Stephen Cretain scored in the first period and the Royals replied with a pair in the second.
Evan Haimila also picked up two assists.
Shots were 51-26 for the Royals and Ryen Papirny (11-11, 4.54 GAA) was between the pipes as the Merchants improved to 9-9-1 on home ice.
Meanwhile, the Merchants are reminding fans that consumption of alcohol is not permitted in Akinsdale Arena and anyone found to be drinking will be asked to leave the facility.
The Merchants also reserve the right to deny admission to anyone they believe to be drunk.
The Merchants want to ensure a family friendly game environment for all fans.
Jets flying high
The Jets wrapped up league play Tuesday against the Edmonton Mustangs (10-26-1) at Ray McDonald Sports Centre but the score was unavailable at press time
The Jets (26-7-4) were two points ahead of the Red Wings (25-8-4) for first place in the west and the teams split the season series with two wins apiece.
Both teams have first-round playoff byes for berths in the quarter-finals.
The fourth win in a row and the 17th in 20 games for the Jets was Sunday's 5-4 decision against the Strathcona Bruins (12-24-2) in Fultonvale.
The Jets battled back from a 4-3 third-period deficit on goals by Tyler Hagel, his second of the period and league-leading 43rd, with 1:28 remaining and Lee Gadoury's 29th with 12 seconds to play.
The Jets led 2-1 after 40 minutes but trailed 3-2 with 11:48 left in the third.
Brett Dubuc and Scott Woloshyn also scored and Joshua Perrott and Zach Mcrae had two helpers apiece.
Hagel is second in league scoring with 69 points in 31 games after his three-point performance.
Shots were 16-10 in the third and 43-33 overall for the Jets and Colton Kucher (15-4, 3.05 GAA) was in net.
