The annual Boston Pizza St. Albert Physical Education Council basketball tournament tips off at 4 p.m. Thursday in St. Albert.
The winning teams in the opening draw qualify for the A bracket and the losing teams are slotted in the B bracket.
Saturday's finals at Vincent J. Maloney School are 1 p.m. for the boys and 2:15 p.m. for the girls in the B division and 3:30 p.m. for the boys and 4:45 p.m. for the girls in the A division.
The junior high tournament features 16 girls' and 16 boys' teams.
Games are scheduled for Ecole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d'Youville School, Lorne Akins School, Richard S. Fowler School and VJM.
Local teams include the VJM Marauders, ESSMY Leopards, Lorne Akins Gators, Richard S. Fowler Falcons, Sir George Simpson Voyageurs, William D. Cuts Crusaders, Morinville Wolves, Camilla Thunderbirds and Sturgeon Heights Eagles.
Last year the Gators repeated as the girls' champion and Meridian Heights of Stony Plain won the boys' final.
The push towards the playoffs continues for the St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets in the Capital Junior B Hockey League with three weeks left in the regular season.
Tonight the Merchants (14-13-4) visit the North Edmonton Red Wings (22-8-2), winners of the last two Founders Cup playoff championships. Faceoff is 8 p.m. at Londonderry Arena.
The next home game is Sunday versus the Stony Plain Flyers (13-6-3) at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
Friday the Jets (22-6-4) play the Edmonton Royals (23-7) at 8 p.m. at Confederation Arena and Sunday they host the Beaumont Chiefs (27-4) at 6:45 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
Beaumont and the Royals are first and second, respectively, in the east division and in the west standings the Jets are first and the Merchants are fourth.
Last weekend the Merchants posted a 3-1 win over the Sherwood Park Knights (8-2-13) in St. Albert and lost a 6-2 road decision to the Wetaskiwin Icemen (21-7-3).
Krys Kraychy, Jake Mercier and Stephen Cretain scored and Ryan Cooper added two assists against the Knights.
Shots were 28-27 Merchants and Ryen Papirny was in net.
Mercier and Cooper potted goals in Wetaskiwin.
The host team broke the game open with four unanswered goals after Cooper tied it at two at 1:53 in the third.
The Merchants were outshot 43-36 and Papirny (8-10, 4.50 GAA) was tagged with the loss.
The Jets doubled the Flyers 12-6 Friday in Stony Plain as Tyler Hagel pumped in five goals – three at even strength, one on the power play and one shorthanded – during a seven-point night.
Riley Van Brabant tallied three times, Brett Dubuc struck twice and Lee Gadoury and Dylan Stang also scored.
Dubuc chipped in with four assists and Gadoury, Alex Michalcheon and Scott Woloshyn had three assists each.
Shots were 49-23 for the Jets and Colton Kucher (11-4, 3.21 GAA) was between the pipes.
The 13th win in 15 games for the Jets was 3-1 against the Beverly Warriors (19-12) Sunday in Morinville.
In the third, two goals by Van Brabant and Hagel's league-high 38th of the season, a power-play marker with 3:43 to play, erased a 1-0 deficit. Gadoury assisted on all three goals.
Hagel ranks second in league scoring with 59 points in 26 games, Gadoury is fifth with 51 and Dubuc is sixth with 50.
The shot count was 22-3 in the third for the Jets and 43-24 overall for the home team. In net was Jaeden McConnell (10-2, 2.35 GAA).
The St. Albert Tire Warehouse Raiders are entrenched in second place in the north standings after winning twice last weekend in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
The Raiders (14-13-1) edged the Grande Peace Storm 2-1 in Grande Prairie and blanked the hometown Leduc Oil Kings 3-0.
Sam Smith-Ackerl, captain of the Raiders, connected on the power play and with nine minutes remaining Logan Hunter fired the winner against the Storm (8-14-4).
Shots were 47-31 for the Raiders and Mitchell Reidy (4-5-1, 3.79 GAA) was the winning netminder.
Chris Curr (10-8, 2.46 GAA) faced a game-high 31 shots in Leduc while recording his third shutout of the season.
Xavier Halterman, Owen Churko (power play) and Cole Gupta filled the net and Hunter added two helpers against the Oil Kings (10-13-3).
The teams play again Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The St. Albert Flyers remain undefeated in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League following Saturday's grudge match with the Sherwood Park Squires.
Kye Buchanan, Stuart Dovey and Dominik Cesarz (shorthanded) found the back of the net and captain Blake Sydlowski assisted on all three goals in the 3-2 victory in Sherwood Park.
Shots favoured the Flyers 34-21 and Evan Fradette (11-0, 0.91 GAA) was in net.
The Flyers (23-0-1) and Squires (18-5-3) are first and second, respectively, in the north division.
The Flyers won 21 games in a row before the Squires rallied to tie the Flyers 2-2 Dec. 20 in St. Albert.
This weekend the Flyers host the Lloydminster Rage (3-20-1) Saturday at 4:15 p.m. and the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (4-17-2) Sunday at 3:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
