Junior B playoffs
The St. Albert Merchants will face-off against the Stony Plain Flyers or Edmonton Mustangs in the best-of-three qualifying round in the Capital Junior B Hockey League playoffs.The Merchants (19-15-1) have fourth place locked up in the west division as the Flyers (15-19-3) and Mustangs (14-19-3) jockey for the fifth and sixth playoff spots.
The Merchants lost last year’s qualifying round in two games against the Flyers.
In league play, the Merchants are 4-0 against the Flyers and 2-2 against the Mustangs.
The top two teams in the west have first-round byes and the Beverly Warriors (25-11-1), North Edmonton Red Wings (24-11-2) and Morinville Jets (23-11-2) are battling for berths in the best-of-five quarter-finals.
League play ends Wednesday and the playoffs should start next weekend with the Merchants having home-ice advantage.
The Blue Guys were 8-9-1 at Akinsdale Arena before hosting the Spruce Grove Regals (4-30-2) Friday. The score was unavailable at press time.
Sunday the Merchants and Beverly hook up at 8 p.m. at Clareview Arena and the last game before the playoffs is Tuesday against the Jets (23-10-2) at 8:30 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
The second win a row for the Merchants after three consecutive losses was 5-2 against the Sherwood Park Knights (14-18-3) on the road Tuesday.
Marco Runco, Peter Corrigan (power play), Daniel Spatafora, Sam Milner and Matt Havens (empty net) scored.
Mike Bruni and Havens added two assists apiece.
Shots were even at 38 apiece and Ethan Crotty (12-10, 3.69 GAA) was in net.
Havens leads the team in points with 54 in 32 games and his 17 goals is one less than Cam Mazur’s team-high 18 in 27 games.
Corrigan and Jack Langenhahn, a pair of first-year Merchants, are second and third in scoring with 32 and 31 points, respectively.
Bantam AAA playoffs
The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres are playing the waiting game before the puck drops in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League playoffs.The first round opponent for the Sabres (21-2-7) is the SSAC Southgate Lions (10-14-7) in the best-of-three nitro division semifinals.
The Sabres have six games left in the regular season after rallying to tie the Sherwood Park Flyers (17-8-6) 4-4 Wednesday at Akinsdale Arena.
Palmer Strang’s hat-trick goal on the power play evened the score at four with 2:12 remaining.
Strang opened the scoring nine seconds into the match and Ethan Sundar made it 2-1 in the last minute of the first period.
The Flyers tallied twice in the third to lead 4-3.
Chase Visser chipped in with two assists for the Sabres.
Shots were 31-25 for the Sabres and Matt Tebbutt (10-0-5, 2.36 GAA) was between the pipes.
The top team in the north conference and second overall behind the Calgary Bisions (25-3-2) in the AMBHL is undefeated in 20 games at 16-0-4.
The Sabres are in Camrose today to play the Red Wings (6-22-1) at 1:45 p.m. and Sunday’s home game against the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (12-14-5) starts at 3:45 p.m.
Midget AA games
The Blues and Source for Sports Crusaders play their next games at Mark Messier Arena in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League.Faceoff is 8:30 p.m. between the Crusaders and Peace River Royals (16-7-3) tonight and the Blues against SSAC Don Wheaton (8-16-3) Tuesday.
The Blues (13-6-3) were third in the Anderson division with games in hand on CAC (14-5-5) and SSAC Lakewood Chevrolet (13-6-5) before Friday’s game against the MLAC Leafs (10-13-1). The score was unavailable at press time.
The third win a row for the Blues was Sunday’s 6-3 decision against the KC Colts (6-16-2) in St. Albert after the 6-0 shutout of the Lakeland Panthers (4-17-1) the day before on the road.
Keigan Miller leads the Blues in scoring with 17 goals and 24 points and Brandon Pelletier is second with 15 goals and 22 points.
The Crusaders (15-5-2) are second in the Besa division as winners of five straight since the 5-2 loss to the Blues on Dec. 17.
The 2017 NAHL playoff finalists posted victories last weekend of 5-1 against the Sturgeon Sting (3-18-1) in St. Albert and 6-4 against the host Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (3-18-1).
The Crusaders are led offensively by Ryan Deets’ 18 goals and 30 points and Logan McKinley’s 12 goals and 29 points.
Shane Zilka (9-2, 1.79 GAA) is tied for league lead in shutouts with four.
