This weekend the St. Albert Steel forge ahead with three games in a row in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
On Friday the Steel (19-11-0-2) host the Sherwood Park Crusaders (18-15-0-4) at 7 p.m. at Performance Arena. Tickets for Friday home games are $5. The Steel and Crusaders share sixth place in the north and St. Albert has five games in hand.
On Saturday the Steel visit the last-place Drayton Valley Thunder (6-25-0-5) at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday’s matinee against the third-place Fort McMurray Oil Barons (22-7-0-7) in St. Albert starts at 2:30 p.m. After the game, fans are invited to skate with the Steel. Helmets are mandatory.
Last weekend in Fort McMurray the Steel recorded three out of a possible four points with a 4-2 win Saturday and Sunday’s 7-6 overtime loss. The visitors were outshot by whopping margins of 56-25 and 69-20 in the OT affair. It was the 16th straight game the Steel have been on the lower end of the shot count, including the last 13 with Rhys Hadfield (19-10-2, 3.31 GAA) in net.
Reed Linaker potted a pair in both games for 18 goals and 36 points in 23 games. He struck twice on the power play in the first game. Mike Giese and Thomas Ward-Cardinal also scored. Period leads were 2-0 and 4-1. Hadfield gave up a shorthanded marker at 15:51 in the second and Kevin Lacroix’s unassisted goal at 3:49 in the third. Lacroix, a St. Albert product, has 10 goals and 15 points in his first AJHL campaign.
In the second tilt, Baxter Niziol’s second of the game and fifth of the season knotted the score at six apiece with 8:40 remaining in regulation time. In the five-minute three-on-three OT frame, Carson Cooper sniped the winner with three seconds to go.
David Randall scored his first AJHL goal and Spencer Pommells also connected for the Steel. It was 2-1 Oil Barons after the first and 4-4 entering the third.
The St. Albert Flyers can move into a first–place tie with the Sherwood Park Squires with a win Thursday in Sherwood Park. Puck drop is 8:30 p.m.
The Flyers (15-2) hold two games in hand on the Squires (14-1-4) in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League’s north conference.
The first loss after 11 consecutive wins by the Flyers was Sunday’s 4-3 setback against the fourth-place PAC Saints (10-5-3) in Spruce Grove. Jake Mykitiuk scored in the first and third periods and assisted on Braeden Farge’s goal in the middle stanza. Period scores were 1-1 and 3-2 for the Saints. Shots were 41-30 for the Flyers. In net was Tanner McCorriston.
