Raiders at home
The St. Albert Nektar Raiders kickoff a four-game homestand tonight in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
Faceoff is 7:45 p.m. against the Leduc Oil Kings (5-12-8) at Jarome Iginla Arena.
The Raiders (23-1-3) also host the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (13-10-4) Saturday at 1:45 p.m. and Calgary Royals (9-14-2) Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
The No. 1 AMHL team is the winner of six straight and 15 of 16 games after beating Royals 6-3 Sunday in Calgary.
Drew Kuzma and Maddux Nollski posted two goals apiece, Koehn Ziemmer and Chase Visser (shorthanded) notched singles and Ty Cheveldayoff added two assists.
The Raiders dialed up 59 shots while Andreai Proctor-Ramirez (13-1-2, 1.17 GAA) stopped 27 pucks.
The Raiders started off the road trip against south division teams with Saturday’s 4-2 decision against the Lethbridge Hurricanes (14-9-5).
The second of two goals by Cheveldayoff made it 3-2 on the power play at 7:08 of the third period.
Ziemmer and Noah Wilson also scored as the Raiders outshot Lethbridge 42-31 in support of Carson Ironside (10-0-1, 1.82 GAA).
Rivalry game
The St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets crank it up Friday in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
Faceoff is 8 p.m. at Jarome Iginla Arena.
Previous results between the junior B combatants were 3-2 Merchants on Sept. 27 in St. Albert, 7-4 Merchants on Nov. 16 in Morinville and 5-1 Jets on Dec. 10 in Morinvile.
In the west division, the Merchants (20-14) and Jets (13-21-1) are third and fifth, respectively, with the best-of-three qualifying playoff round starting in two weeks.
The fourth win in five games for the Merchants was 2-1 Friday against the east division-leading Edmonton Royals (29-5-2) in St. Albert.
Bryce Sturm opened the scoring in the middle frame with his team-high 25th goal and Stuart Dovey’s 19th goal broke a 1-1 tie with 3:05 left in regulation time.
Shots were 32-31 for the Merchants and Nate Reinhart (2-1, 3.33 GAA) was in net.
The second consecutive victory for the Jets after three losses was 3-1 against the Spruce Grove Regals (4-27-3) Sunday in Morinville.
Josh Mcrae potted a pair for 27 goals this season and Regan Regimbald also scored as the Jets piled up 44 shots. Luke Hall (7-12, 3.94 GAA) finished the win with 31 saves.
Sunday the Jets host the Stony Plain Flyers (17-16-1) at 7:30 p.m. and the Merchants entertain the Beverly Warriors (28-6), the top team in the west, at 8 p.m.
