The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres play their second-last game before the playoffs tonight in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
Faceoff is 7 p.m. against the PAC Saints at Grant Fuhr Arena.
The Sabres (23-5-6) are second in the nitro north division and fourth overall in the AMBHL. The Saints (12-16-4) share third place with the Lloydminster Heat (11-15-6) in the charger north division.
The Sabres wrap up league play next Saturday against the Heat at 4:15 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The best-of-three nitro opening round series between the Sabres and third-place SSAC Southgate Lions (18-9-5) starts Feb. 16 in St. Albert. The Sabres are 2-0-2 against SSAC this season.
The last game for the Sabres was Thursday’s 6-2 win over the visiting Leduc Oil Kings.
Blake Sydlowski (19th), Austin Spiridakis (19th), Kye Buchanan (13th), Brady Nicholas (14th), Dominik Cesarz (12th) and Justin MacDonald (fourth) scored against Leduc (10-18-4), ranked fifth in the charger standings.
Nicholas finished with three points and Braydon Iwaschuk and Logan McKinley chipped in with two assists apiece.
Shots were 32-19 for the Sabres and Ryley Osland (11-3-3, 2.45 GAA) was in net.
Eight wrestlers will represent the Lorne Akins Crush at the Alberta Winter Games.
Chris Manchester, Ryan Baerg and Declan Cayanga won their weight categories at the Zone 5 (Black Gold/Yellowhead) trials and Lyall Mcmillan, Lily Smith, Anna Smith, William Diederichs and Alexa Bereziuk placed second at the trials and will fill spots on the other zone teams next weekend in Medicine Hat.
Meanwhile, at the recent all-boys and all-girls tournaments at Dan Knott School in Edmonton, nine Crushers reached the medal podium.
Manchester, Cayanga and Aidan Orr placed first, Nico Galla finished second and Hudson Ketsa was third in their respective weight categories for the boys.
Bereziuk, Lily Smith, Anna Smith and Kimana Gillis were awarded bronze in the girls division.
Four competitors from the Hayabusa Training Centre Ltd. in Campbell Business Park combined to win nine medals at the San Jose International Open Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship last weekend.
Justin Wayne Sander, a blue belt, was awarded gold in BJJ and silver in BJJ Absolute (open weight). Sander submitted a 300-pound opponent on his way to six submission wins in adult blue in his first IBJJF tournament.
Zach Pye, a blue belt, captured gold in NoGi and bronze in BJJ in a tough category featuring seven matches.
Mike Scarcello competed in his first tournament at purple belt and returned home with bronze in NoGi.
Luke Harris, a black belt and Hayabusa coach, was a three-time gold medallist in BJJ, NoGi and NoGi Absolute (open weight) and silver medallist in BJJ (open weight). In eight matches, Harris recorded five submission wins, plus two by points and one loss by advantage.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the picture of the medal winners.
