Sunday's finals at the Alberta Female Hockey League midget AAA and bantam elite provincials featured strong St. Albert representation.
The Slash blanked the Rocky Mountain Raiders 2-0 for the midget AAA championship in Okotoks and the Raiders lost 1-0 to Calgary Fire White in Carstairs.
This is the inaugural AFHL season for the midget AAA, midget elite and bantam elite divisions.
The Slash will now advance to the pacific regional series, March 31 to April 2 at Servus Credit Union Place against the British Columbia champion, to determine the representative at the Esso Cup nationals, April 23 to 29 at Morden, Man.
The Slash hosted the 2011 Esso Cup and the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League provincial finalists that year finished fifth out of six teams.
The AFHL championship is the first provincial title in Slash history. The St. Albert team made its AMMFHL debut in 2004/05.
The 2016/17 Slash roster consists of four local forwards: Isabelle Lajoie of St. Albert, Jayme Doyle of Calahoo, MacKenzie Reynolds of Gibbons and Makenna Schuttler of Sturgeon County.
The final against the Raiders, the last AMMFHL champions in 2016, was decided on goals by Kaitlyn Pelley of Onoway in the last minute of the opening period and Madison Willan of Edmonton before the game-ending buzzer.
Camry Drever of Edmonton stopped 36 saves for her second shutout of the tournament and the Slash were credited with 20 shots.
The Slash were coming off a 3-2 loss to the Raiders to complete the four-team round robin in a three-way tie at 2-1 with the Red Deer Chiefs and Calgary Fire but St. Albert earned a berth in a final through the tie-breaker.
The Slash started the tournament with the 6-0 win over Calgary as Drever faced 17 shots and Willan tallied three times.
Willin was the top AFHL scorer with 25 goals and 50 points in 28 games.
Cassidy Maplethorpe of Wetaskiwin recorded one goal and three assists and Shyla Kirwer of Sherwood Park also scored.
Tyra Meropoulis of Edson opened the scoring in the 2-1 overtime loss to Red Deer.
Shots were 31-30 for Red Deer and Brianna Sank of Ardrossan was in net.
A third-period rally fell short in the first game with the Raiders as Stephanie Markowski of Edmonton and Kaylee Vachon of Fort Saskatchewan potted goals in the third after the Slash fell behind 3-0.
The Slash outshot the Raiders 27-19 and Drever was between the pipes.
Maplethorpe led the Slash in playoff scoring with six points and Meropoulis collected five.
Drever compiled a tidy 1.00 GAA and .960 save percentage in three games.
In league play, the Slash (27-2-1, 119 GF/44 GA) finished first, followed by the Raiders (18-9-3,89 GF/58 GA), Calgary (12-17-1, 47 GF/75 GA) and Red Deer (11-15-4, 40 GF/51 GA) in the six-team standings.
Second for Raiders
One goal was the difference between a provincial championship and second-place result for the bantam elite Raiders.
Calgary Fire White (3-1-1) struck on the power play at 5:14 of the middle frame, en route to outshooting the Raiders 21-14 in the final.
It was the first loss at provincials for the Raiders after ties of 2-2 against the Sherwood Park Royals and Calgary Fire Red before beating Calgary Fire White 1-0 and the Olds Grizzlys 3-1.
Libby Langenhahn posted a team-high four goals in the tournament and shared the lead in points with Jessica Kormysh at four apiece.
Elle Boyko (2-1-1, 1.01 GAA) backstopped the Raiders in four games, including the final, and stopped 28 shots in the shutout decision against Calgary Fire White as Kormysh sniped the winner on the power play with 47 seconds left in regulation time.
The Raiders (21-4-1, 72 GF/30 GA) and Calgary Fire White (21-2-3, 101 GF/32 GA) finished first in their respective AFHL divisions.
