Basketball games
The last league games before the Christmas break in metro Edmonton division two men’s basketball tip-off Monday.
Start times are 6:30 p.m. for the St. Albert Skyhawks against the Strathcona Christian Academy Eagles (1-0) at the SkyDome, the Bellerose Bulldogs play at the J. Percy Page Panthers (2-0) and the Paul Kane Blues visit the M.E. Lazerte Voyageurs (2-0).
The Skyhawks are 1-1 after Wednesday’s 68-54 win over the Archbishop Jordan Scots (1-1) at Sherwood Park.
The second victory without a loss for Paul Kane, the 2019 finalist at 13-1, was 82-75 Wednesday at the Archbishop MacDonald Marauders (0-1).
Bellerose lost Monday’s 73-60 season opener at home to ABJ.
Junior B action
The next game for the St. Albert Merchants in the Capital Junior B Hockey League is Sunday at Coronation Arena.
Faceoff is 8 p.m. against the Edmonton Royals (19-4-1), the top team in the east division.
Friday the Merchants (15-9) hosted the Wetaskiwin Icemen (9-12-2) and the score was unavailable at press time.
The third loss in four games for the third-place west division team was 5-1 against the Morinville Jets (7-17) Tuesday at Landrex Arena.
The Jets scored four times 12 shots in the third period on goals by Josh Mcrae, Ryan Denton, Zach Mcrae and Jeff Smith.
Ryan Conquergood, an affiliate, opened the scoring with 1:20 left in the first and Scott Lancaster tied it with 36 seconds left in the period.
Luke Hall (2-7, 4.29 GAA) faced 24 shots in the third win in four games by the Jets.
Merchants' starter Mitchell Reidy (four GA on 29 shots) was replaced by Ryan Deets (one GA on five shots), a forward and the team’s emergency back-up netminder, after Reidy (7-5, 3.98 GAA) was tagged with a game misconduct with 8:30 to play.
The fallout from the incident were suspensions of two games for Reidy and three games for head coach Zach Rodda for verbal abuse of an official and game misconduct in the last 10 minutes and two games for assistant coach Scott Rodda for a game misconduct in the last 10 minutes.
Reidy was penalized in the middle frame for a slew-foot infraction.
The Merchants close out the December schedule next weekend with home dates against the North Edmonton Red Wings (18-5-1) Friday and Fort Saskatchewan Hawks (11-5-6) Sunday at 8 p.m.
