Team of the Year
The St. Albert Slash were honoured by Hockey Alberta as the 2018 Team of the Year.The inaugural Hockey Alberta award recognizes a team’s significant achievements, performances and contributions within amateur hockey during the current season.
Head coach Dan Auchenberg and captain Madison Willan, a third-year Slash forward, accepted the award Saturday in Red Deer.
Last season the Slash repeated as the Esso Cup midget AAA female national champions while going 34-11-1 overall in the Alberta Female Hockey League, Final Frozen Four provincials, Pacific Region national qualifier and Esso Cup.
This season the Slash are 13-1-1 in the AFHL after Saturday’s 4-1 win over the host Red Deer Chiefs (6-9-2).
Mackenzie Kordic’s second goal in the opening period was scored on the power play.
Willan also capitalized with the man advantage for her league-high 15th goal and 29th point to make it 3-1 in the middle frame.
Jenna Goodwin closed out the team’s sixth win in a row into an empty net and Kiah Vial added two assists
Shots were 31-11 for the Slash and Brianna Sank (6-1, 0.75 GAA) was in net.
The night before at Bill Hunter Arena, Holly Borrett (7-0, 0.71 GAA) stopped 15 shots for her third shutout and the team’s seventh, which was also the third in four games, in the 6-0 decision against the Edmonton Pandas (5-13).
The Slash were credited with 34 shots as Willan tallied three times, Jaden Bogden potted a pair and Taylor Anker also scored.
Anker and Goodwin collected two assists apiece.
This weekend the Slash are competing in a tournament at Toronto and the next league game is Dec. 15 against Calgary Fire (9-5-1) at 4:15 p.m. at Max Bell Centre.
Team Canada West
The Team Canada West selection camp for the World Junior A Challenge includes three St. Albert Raiders Hockey Club products.Defenceman Michael Benning, right winger Garrett Clegg and left winger Carter Savoie of the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League are among 44 invitees through Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League, with assistance from NHL Central Scouting. The players were selected from the CJHL’s five western junior A leagues.
The Team Canada West tryouts run Dec. 3 to 5 in Calgary and the World Junior A Challenge goes Dec. 9 to 16 in Bonnyville.
Savoie, an AJHL rookie, leads the Crusaders (19-6-2) in scoring with 16 goals and 34 points in 27 games and Clegg ranks second with 15 goals and 32 points in 23 games.
Benning is the team’s top scoring blueliner in his rookie season with 16 assists and 19 points in 27 games.
Benning and Savoie, both 16 years old, are committed to the Denver Pioneers and Clegg, 18, is committed to the Robert Morris Colonials.
Merchants score
The St. Albert Merchants lit the lamp nine times in the team’s high-scoring game of the season in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.Bryce Sturm sparked the Merchants with four goals, including two power-play markers, in Sunday’s 9-3 drubbing of the Spruce Grove Regals (4-17) at Akinsdale Arena.
Sturm, the team leader in goals with 14 in 18 games and co-leader in points with Peter Corrigan at 25 apiece, also added two assists.
Corrigan (power play), Cole Gupta, Sam Milner, Kole Bryks and Jack Langenhahn also found the back of the net.
The Merchants posted period leads of 3-1 and 6-1.
Shots were 24-10 in the first period and 53-40 overall for the Merchants as Colton Iwaschuk (4-3, 2.86 GAA) recorded the win between the pipes.
The second victory in three games during a 2-1-3 surge in the west division pushed the Merchants (6-9-3) to within three points of the fifth-place Stony Plain Flyers (9-10) with a game in hand.
Friday the Merchants host the Edmonton Mustangs (9-9-1) at 8 p.m. and the team’s home record is 5-3-1.
The contest also marks the final Movember fundraising drive towards the Merchants’ goal of $5,000. Half of the proceeds from the game’s 50/50 will be donated to Movember. The 50/50 will start off at $200 through the sponsorship of Aveng, a unisex clothing business.
Visit https://ca.movember.com/team/2335510 to contribute to the cause.
Sunday the Merchants visit the Beverly Warriors (14-6) at 8 p.m. at Clareview Arena.
Jets streaking
The Morinville Jets skate into tonight’s game against the Beverly Warriors as winners of seven in a row in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.Puck drop is 8 p.m. at Clareview Arena between the third-place Jets (9-7-1) and Beverly (14-6), the co-leader with the North Edmonton Red Wings (13-3-2) in the west standings.
The latest victory for the Jets was Friday’s 5-4 shootout decision against the Red Wings at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
The Red Wings tied it at four with 6:53 remaining.
Connor Tuppala struck twice on the power play while Brett Dubuc and Dylan McFatridge notched singles.
Dubuc, Josh Mcrae and Lee Gadoury chipped in two assists apiece.
Dubuc leads the CJHL in scoring with 38 points in 17 games and is tied for second in goals with 20.
The Red Wings scored twice on the penalty kill and once with the man advantage while outshooting the Jets 48-31 as Colton Kucher (5-5, 3.11 GAA) guarded the net.
Friday the Jets host the Leduc Riggers (8-9-1) at 8 p.m. and Sunday’s game against the Stony Plain Flyers (9-10) starts at 8:30 p.m. at Glenn Hall Centennial Arena.
Raiders wear ties
A pair of stalemates on the road left the St. Albert Nektar Data Systems Raiders tied for third in the north division of the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.Scores were 4-4 against the Red Deer Chiefs (12-2-4) and 2-2 against the Calgary Buffaloes (11-4-3).
Red Deer netted the equalizer with 1:49 to play after Eric Perneel and Ethan Willans pumped in goals 95 seconds apart with under eight minutes remaining.
Noah Kramps and Carson Henry also scored as the Raiders outshot Red Deer 14-6 in the third and 36-32 in total. Andreai Proctor-Ramirez was between the pipes.
Tyson Greenway’s second goal against the Buffaloes was a shorthanded effort to knot it at two at 6:13 of the third.
The Buffaloes made it 2-1 with six seconds left in the first.
The shot count was 34-15 for the Buffaloes as Proctor-Ramirez (5-3-3, 2.89) started his fourth consecutive game.
The Raiders are now 2-4-2 on the road and 3-5-4 against south division teams.
Saturday the Raiders face off against the Southside Athletic Club (6-11) at 5 p.m. at Bill Hunter Arena and Sunday’s puck drop is 1:15 p.m. against the Sherwood Park Kings (5-11-2) at Akinsdale Arena.
The Raiders, 3-3-2 in November, are one point back of the second-place Grande Peace Storm (8-7-3) and trail the first-place Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (12-6) by six points.
