Slash vs. Comets
The St. Albert Ron Hodgson Slash are two wins away from a return trip to the Esso Cup midget AAA female national championship when the Pacific Regional playoff starts Friday.The winner of the best-of-three weekend series between the Slash and the host Greater Vancouver Comets advances to the 10th annual Esso Cup, April 21 to 29 in Bridgewater, N.S.
The Slash are defending national champions and last year swept the Comets in the Pacific Regional by scores of 2-0 and 3-2 in St. Albert.
The Slash skate into the series with 10 returnees from the first Esso Cup team to finish a perfect 7-0 and the first Alberta team to win nationals.
The Comets compete in the five-team British Columbia female midget AAA league and in the regular season finished 29-2-1 (174 GF/45 GA) followed by a 4-0 effort in the playoffs.
The top three scorers in league play were Jenn Gardiner (38 goals, 67 points), Jenna Buglioni (20 goals, 58 points) and Naomi Choong (24 goals, 40 points) of the Comets.
The Slash placed second in the Alberta Female Hockey League at 21-8-1 (85 GF/45 GA) and were 5-1 in the playoffs, including the 3-2 overtime decision against the first-place Rocky Mountain Raiders (24-4-2) in the second annual Final Frozen Four provincial championship. Madison Willan sniped the equalizer with seven seconds remaining in regulation time and in OT the Slash killed off a two-minute five-on-three power play before McKenzie Hewett scored the golden goal with the man advantage.
Hewett and Willan scored a team-high five goals apiece in four games at provincials and in the regular season Willan led the way with 13 goals and 26 points in 29 games and Hewett posted 10 goals and 18 points in 23 games.
Camryn Drever (12-3, 1.34 GAA) and Brianna Sank (9-5, 1.58 GAA) also ranked first and second, respectively, among netminders in league play.
Silver for Sharks
The St. Albert Sharks finished the season as provincial silver medallists at the midget elite female championship in Calgary.The Sharks (21-4-1) lost 2-0 to Calgary Fire White (20-4-2) as the top two teams in the Alberta Female Hockey League regular season squared-off in Sunday’s final.
Calgary opened the scoring on the power play at 8:11 of the second period and added its second goal with 16 seconds left in the frame.
Holly Borrett was tested 29 times and the Sharks were credited with 27 shots on goal.
The Sharks also dropped a 6-1 decision to Calgary in the five-team round robin.
The 3-2 record for the Sharks included wins of 2-1 against the Sherwood Park Fury, 4-2 against the Airdrie Lightning and 2-0 against Calgary Fire Red as Borrett faced a game-high 35 shots while registering her seventh shutout of the season and the team’s 10th overall.
At provincials, Kendra Johnston led the Sharks in goals with four and tied for the team lead in points with Kylie Foisy at five apiece.
Midget AA final
The fourth Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League final in five years for the St. Albert Source for Sports Crusaders starts Friday in Beaumont.Faceoff is 8:45 p.m. against the hometown Braves.
Game two in the best-of-five series is 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Go Auto Arena and game three is 8:45 p.m. Tuesday at Beaumont.
If needed, game four is April 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Go Auto Arena and game five is to be determined in Leduc.
Both teams are 6-1-1 in the playoffs and in league play the Metro conference Crusaders finished second in the Besa division at 20-9-3 and the Rural conference Braves placed first in the CanAccom division at 22-4-6.
The Crusaders have seven returnees on the roster from last year’s provincial and NAMHL finalists.
A sneak preview of the playoff series was staged last week at provincials with the Crusaders winning 5-3 in Stony Plain.
The Crusaders went on to lose the third-place game 5-2 to the CBHA Blackhawks and the Braves finished 0-4.
Period scores against the Braves were 2-0 and 4-1.
The second of two goals by Matthew Kachmar was on the power play in the third period.
Cole Ridd, Noah Fayad and Ryan Deets also connected, Rhys Mazur picked up three assists and Logan McKinley had a pair of helpers.
Shots were 38-30 for the Braves and Spencer Hutson was the winning netminder.
The Crusaders closed out the five-team round robin with losses of 7-1 to the PAC Saints, the eventual provincial champions, 5-2 to the Blackhawks and 3-1 to the Lethbridge Hurricane Hounds.
At provincials, Kachmar and Deets scored a team-high three goals apiece and Deets, McKinley and Zach Giacobbo were the co-leaders in points with five.
Team Brick
Mats Lajoie and Ty Meunier of St. Albert were selected to compete at the 29th annual Brick Invitational Tournament in July at the Ice Palace at West Edmonton Mall.Lajoie is a right winger with the atom AA Lightning and Meunier is a centre/left winger with the atom AA Crusaders.
They were among more than 240 invited players from throughout the province at the Team Brick Alberta tryouts in late March at Penhold and the final 18 players will participate in a spring training development camp leading up to the tournament for nine- and 10-year-olds from across North America.
The selection committee consisted of independent hockey evaluators, including professional coaches, scouts and other qualified hockey personnel.
Bantam AA final
The St. Albert Bears and the Lakeland Panthers face-off in Friday’s series opener in the Edmonton Rural Bantam AA Hockey League final.Start time is 8 p.m. in Bonnyville.
Game two in the best-of-three playoff is 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Akinsdale Arena and game three, if needed, is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Bonnyville.
The Metro conference Bears are 6-0-1 in the playoffs after placing third in the red division at 17-10-5 and the Rural conference Lakeland is 7-0 in the post-season after posting a league-best 30-1-1 record in the white division.
In previous meetings, Lakeland blanked the Bears 6-0 Oct. 28 in St. Albert and 7-0 in provincial action last week in Edmonton.
Lakeland went on to win the provincial championship and the Bears finished 0-4.
In the five-team round robin, the Bears suffered losses to 3-2 the Leduc Roughnecks and 4-3 to the CBHA Wranglers and 5-2 to the West Central Tigers.
The Bears were coming off a two-game sweep of Leduc, 21-7-4 as the top blue division team, in the Metro conference final by scores of 4-1 and 4-3 in double overtime as Jordan Burgardt potted the series winner.
Matthew Cesarz and Joel Vollrath led the Bears in goals with two apiece and were among five players with a team-high two points apiece at provincials.
