Barons No. 1
The St. Albert Barons shone bright at the Hockey Alberta atom AA major championship Sunday in Okotoks.
The Barons lit the lamp 21 times in two playoff wins to finish 4-1 at provincials.
The Barons outscored Red Deer 10-9 in the final after the 11-7 outcome against Okotoks 1A Green in the semifinals.
Visit www.St.AlbertToday.ca to view the team’s championship picture.
The final was knotted at eight when Callum Childs put the Barons ahead at 5:36 and Riley Thorpe’s fifth goal of the game was the insurance marker at 10:15.
Red Deer (3-2) made it a one-goal game at 12:18 and the Barons kept the lead intact while killing off a penalty in the process.
The Barons led 2-1 after the first and the teams combined for 11 goals in the second as the period ended tied at seven.
Rylan Aulin, Riley Sinclair, Jack Wilde, Jesse McKinnon also scored and Nixon Chanski and Barrett Fogolin picked up three assists apiece.
Period scores against Okotoks 1A Green (3-1) were 3-1 and 9-3 for the Barons as Thorpe and McKinnon found the back of the net four times, Marley Whiting tallied twice and Kolten Walz also scored.
In pool play, the Barons beat the Blackfoot Chiefs 5-2, lost 6-0 to Cochrane and defeated Okotoks 1B 10-2.
Thorpe led the Barons in scoring at provincials with 11 goals and 14 points and McKinnon recorded nine goals and 10 points.
The Barons finished the season with an overall 34-9-3 record while going 18-2-2 as the Hockey Edmonton quarter-finalists.
The team roster consisted of 15 players born in 2008 and two 2009 players.
Flyers provincials
Three victories in a row propelled the St. Albert Flyers into today’s semifinals at the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League provincials.
Depending on Friday’s results against the Red Deer Chiefs and NW Calgary Bruins, the Flyers will play at 11:30 a.m. or 2:15 p.m. at The Meadows Community Recreation Centre.
Sunday’s medal finals are 10 a.m. for bronze and 1:15 p.m. for gold at The Meadows.
The six-team tournament started with wins of 7-1 against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday and 5-1 against the Leduc Oil Kings and 6-2 against the host SSAC Bulldogs on Thursday.
Chase Visser potted a pair and Graeme Hampton, Isaac Kinsella, affiliate Levi Fesyk, Kaleb West and Zachry Desranleau notched singles against Lethbridge, the provincial champion the last two years.
Carson Ironside stopped 23 shots while the Flyers put 22 pucks on net against the 28-4-2 south division leaders in the AMMHL.
Visser also tallied twice and Palmer Strang added three assists against Leduc.
Jordan Burgardt, Regan Kallis and Ethan Sundar scored and Palmer Strang chipped in with three assists against the team that beat the Flyers 5-3 in the March 10 final of the north division provincial qualifier tournament at Lloydminster.
The Flyers and Leduc also finished tied for third at 21-10-3 in the north standings.
Shots were 18 apiece with Ethan Kadatz in net for the Flyers.
Sundar’s two goals and Ironside's 39 saves pushed the Flyers past the Bulldogs, 12-17-5 for seventh place in the north.
Hampton, Desranleau, Payton McDonald-Corea and Dylan Leslie also scored as the Flyers were credited with 21 shots.
Royals rolling
The St. Albert Royals can sweep the Rural & Edmonton Midget 15AA Hockey League final against the defending champion Hockey Central Panthers with a victory today in Sylvan Lake.
Game three in the best-of-five series starts at 5:15 p.m.
If required, game four is 12:15 p.m. Sunday at Akinsdale Arena and game five is 7 p.m. Wednesday in Sylvan Lake.
Last year the Panthers swept the Royals for the championship.
The Royals skate into game three with wins of 2-1 in Sylvan Lake and Thursday’s 4-3 overtime decision at Go Auto Arena as Nico Gallo sniped the winner with 2:42 left in the first extra period and Owen Bourque drew the assist.
The Panthers pulled even on the power play with 1:38 remaining in regulation time.
Luke Aston, Anwar Moukhaiber and Brydon Foster (power play) netted goals and Bourque finished with two assists.
Shots were 36-31 for the Royals in support of netminder Jack Robinson.
In the playoffs, the Royals are 8-1 and the Panthers are 6-2.
The regular-season standings listed the Panthers (24-1-5, 177 GF/39 GA) first and Royals (23-3-4, 144 GF/56 GA) second.
In the season series, the teams settled for ties of 1-1 and 2-2 and the Panthers won 6-1.
