Tickets are going fast for the Jan. 10 game between the Canadian national women’s team and the midget AAA St. Albert Raiders at Performance Arena.
As of Wednesday, approximately 60 per cent of the tickets were sold. They went on sale to the public Tuesday after they were made available to all teams in the feeder organizations (Raiders Hockey Club and PAC of Spruce Grove) of the midget AAA zone team as well as girls’ and women’s teams in the zone.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12 and seniors. They are available at St. Albert Source for Sports stores.
The start time was moved from 7:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. to accommodate families and teams.
It’s the first game of the new year for the gold medal contenders at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. It’s also three days before the Olympic flame comes through St. Albert and 30 days before the Olympics begin.
The Canadian squad is playing a series of games against Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League teams in preparation for the Olympics. After Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Red Deer Rebels, the national team’s record was 9-5 against the midgets. Several games count in the league standings, including the Jan. 10 event.
St. Albert minor hockey product Meaghan Mikkelson, 24, is making a strong bid to make Team Canada’s line-up on defence. A member of the national team since 2007, the former Wisconsin Badger and Edmonton Chimo competed at the IIHF World Women’s Championships as a forward in 2008 and as a defenceman in 2009. Canada settled for silver both years.
At 7:30 p.m. Sunday the St. Albert Merchants face off against the Spruce Grove Regals at Grant Fuhr Arena.
In the Capital Junior B Hockey League the Merchants (7-13-0-2) and Regals (8-13) shared fifth place in the west division, prior to St. Albert hosting the North Edmonton Red Wings (15-6-0-1) Friday at Akinsdale Arena. The score was unavailable at press time.
The Merchants were coming off a 7-4 loss to the east division-leading Fort Saskatchewan Hawks (17-2-0-2) last weekend at Akinsdale as their home ice record dropped to 1-9-0-1. Period scores were 0-0 after the first and 4-1 Hawks after the second. It was 4-3 Hawks in the third when they put the game away with goals at 4:22 on the power play and 11:11 at even strength.
Craig Vigneau, Alex Hawirko, Rob Beirnes and Dustin Robinson scored and Jason Riley added two assists. In net was Curtis Ronaldson.
