Two graduates of the St. Albert Raiders Hockey Club were among 41 players invited to Canada’s national junior team selection camp for the 2012 world junior championship.
Netminder Tyler Bunz of St. Albert and defenceman Brenden Kichton of Spruce Grove were teammates on the midget AAA St. Albert Raiders in 2007/08.
Bunz, 19, is one of four goalies vying to make the team, including Mark Visentin of the Niagara Icedogs from last year’s silver medallists.
Bunz is a Greater St. Albert Sports Academy alumnus who attended Team Canada’s summer development camp in Edmonton. He’s in his fourth Western Hockey League season with the Medicine Hat Tigers. His record is 15-6-3 with two shutouts, a 2.44 GAA and .926 save percentage.
Bunz was picked in the fifth round, 121st overall, by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2010 NHL entry draft.
Kichton, 19, is one of 14 defencemen named to the selection camp. The fourth-year WHL player with the Spokane Chiefs was drafted by the New York Islanders in the fifth round, 127th overall, in 2011.
Last season Kichton scored 23 goals and was third in team scoring with 81 points in 64 games with Spokane. He has three goals and 17 assists in 21 games this season.
Team Canada’s roster will be announced Dec. 14.
The first game for Canada is Boxing Day against Finland at 1:30 p.m. at Rexall Place. The gold-medal game is Jan. 5 in Calgary.
Tara Feser of St. Albert will hoop it up with Team Canada at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London, England.
It’s the second Paralympics for the wheelchair basketball player. Canada finished fifth at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing with Feser in the line-up.
Canada was one of three teams to qualify for the Paralympics at the recent Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. In the final Canada lost 69-31 to the United States. Feser was 0-4 in field goal attempts while logging 11:22 minutes on the court.
In Canada’s 71-59 semifinal win over Mexico, the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball Canada female athlete of the year grabbed two defensive rebounds and had two assists.
Canada is ranked third in the world behind the United States and Germany.
Feser, 31, is currently in Germany in her second season playing for the Trier Dolphins, a semi-pro coed wheelchair basketball club.
Luke Mahura of the midget AAA St. Albert Raiders has been recalled by the Prince Albert Raiders for the rest of the season.
The 16-year-old right winger was selected by Prince Albert in the second round, 28th overall, in the 2010 Western Hockey League bantam draft.
Mahura is joining a Prince Albert team that ranks last in the east division with six wins and 14 points in 28 games.
Mahura was St. Albert’s top scorer with 14 goals in 18 games and shared the team lead in points with Kevin Miller at 24 apiece.
Last season Mahura scored six goals and added 11 assists in 33 games in midget AAA.
The first game for St. Albert without Mahura in the line-up is Saturday in Lloydminster.
St. Albert is second in the north standings at 12-4-2 after blanking the Medicine Hat Tigers 3-0 and tying the Calgary Flames 3-3 on the road last weekend.
The St. Albert Sabres have games scheduled this weekend against the top two teams in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League’s charger division.
The Sabres travel Friday to play the Camrose Vikings (10-6-2) at 7:30 p.m. Sunday’s home game against the Lloydminster Heat (13-2-1) starts at 1:15 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The Sabres (9-3-3) are ranked third in the nitro division. They finished the month of November with a 3-1-1 record.
The Sabres are led offensively by Matteo Gennaro’s 13 goals and 23 points in 13 games. Ethan Lazaro is second in scoring with 11 goals and 22 points in 15 games.
