Raiders at the Mac's, Slash Alumni Event and junior B update

Raiders at Mac’s

The 40th annual Mac’s Midget AAA World Invitational Tournament is underway for the St. Albert Tire Warehouse Raiders in Calgary. Pool play started Tuesday for the Raiders against the Calgary Royals but the score was unavailable at press time. The Raiders are in action today against the Tisdale Trojans and Thursday against the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds. Game times are 5:15 p.m. The last game before the playoff round is Saturday against the Hungarian national U18 team at 11:45 a.m. The Mac’s consists of 25 teams divided into five pools. The Raiders and KC Pats are the only north division teams among the 10 Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League teams in the tournament. The last St. Albert team at the Mac’s was the 2012/13 Raiders with a 3-2 record as quarter-finalists. In the AMHL, the Raiders (13-8-4) and KC (13-9-2) are ranked first and second, respectively, in the north. The Raiders are also the top defensive team in the north and fourth overall in the AMHL with a 2.04 goals-against average. The Raiders were undefeated in 12 games with eight wins and four ties before the 2-1 loss to the Canadian Olympic women’s team (7-4-2) in last Tuesday’s AMHL contest at Go Auto Arena.

Slash vs. Slash

The fourth annual Slash Alumni Event is good to go tonight at Troy Murray Arena. The fourth annual reunion game of past and present midget AAA St. Albert Ron Hodgson Slash players starts at 7 p.m. and is sponsored by the 2011 Esso Cup Legacy Fund. The inaugural season for the Slash was 2004/05 in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League and the 2017 Esso Cup national champions are competing in the Alberta Female Hockey League for the second consecutive season.

Junior B update

At the Christmas break, three wins and eight points separate the second-place Morinville Jets and fourth-place St. Albert Merchants in the west division of the Capital Junior B Hockey League. The Jets (18-7-2) skate into the new year undefeated in eight games at 7-0-1 and the December record for the Merchants (15-12) is 2-4. League play resumes Jan. 3 for the Jets against the Edmonton Mustangs (10-14-3) at 8:30 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre and the Merchants host the Strathcona Bruins (13-12-1) Jan. 5 at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.