Raiders at Mac’s
The 41st annual Mac’s Midget AAA World Invitational Tournament continues for the St. Albert Nektar Raiders in Calgary.In pool three round-robin action, the Raiders play the Vancouver NE Chiefs today at 5:15 p.m. and Sunday’s start time against the Calgary Buffaloes is 2:30 p.m.
Friday’s score against the Okotoks Oilers was unavailable at press time.
The Raiders opened the 25-team tournament with Wednesday’s 2-1 win over the defending champion Regina Pat Canadians.
Evan Fradette, the Raiders’ player of the game, stopped 28 shots and assisted on the winning goal by captain Erik Boers with 11 seconds remaining.
The Raiders were outshot 10-3 in the third period while finishing with 15 shots overall.
Kye Buchanan struck on the power play with 43 seconds left in the first period and Regina replied midway through the second.
Tyson Kowaluk picked up two assists.
Regina was 0-for-8 with the man advantage.
The first-place teams in the five pools and three wild cards advance to Monday’s playoff round.
The final is 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Saddledome.
Visit www.macstournament.ab.ca for results.
Last year the Raiders were 4-2 as semifinalists.
The Raiders (12-8-4) entered the Mac’s tied for second in the north division of the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League as winners of five of the last six games.
Merchants game
The St. Albert Merchants ring in the new year Friday against the North Edmonton Red Wings in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.Faceoff is 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The Merchants (9-12-4) are 7-4-2 on home ice after the worst loss of the season, 11-3 to the Fort Saskatchewan Hawks (13-14) Dec. 21.
The Hawks outshot a Merchants’ lineup of 14 skaters 65-45 as Brandon Boughen (5-11, 4.84 GAA) went the distance for a team averaging 4.64 goals-against per game.
Ryan Cooper opened the scoring and the first of two goals by Cole Gupta cut the deficit to 6-2 with 1:49 to go in the middle frame.
Both goals by Gupta were set up by Bryce Sturm and Peter Corrigan, the team’s top scorers with 34 and 33 points, respectively.
With 13 games left until the playoffs, the Merchants are two points behind the fifth-place Stony Plain Flyers (11-14-2) in the west division with two games in hand. The top six teams qualify and the division co-leaders are the Beverly Warriors (20-7) and Red Wings (19-5-2).
