Raiders in final
The St. Albert Nektar Raiders dug themselves out of a deep playoff hole to advance to the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League provincial final.
After two overtime losses to the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers, the Raiders roared back to complete the best-of-five series comeback victory in the north division final.
The Raiders are now three wins away from the team’s first provincial championship since 1990 when the final begins Friday in Calgary. Faceoff is 8:15 p.m. at Cardel Rec South Arena.
Game two is 3 p.m. Sunday and game three is 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Cardel.
If needed, game four is 7 p.m. Thursday at Akinsdale and game five is 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Cardel.
The winner hosts the Pacific Region best-of-three series April 5 to 7 against the B.C. champion for a berth at the Telus Cup, April 22 to 28 at Thunder Bay, Ont.
The last appearance in the provincial final for the Raiders was 2012.
In the playoffs, the Raiders and Buffaloes are both 6-2 after winning the fifth and deciding game in their division finals.
In the regular season, the Raiders (19-11-4, 116 GF/92 GA) placed first in the north and the Buffaloes (24-7-3, 144 GF/74 GA) tied the 2018 provincial champion Lethbridge Hurricanes (25-8-1, 137 GF/74 GA) for top spot in the south.
Results of the season series were 6-1 Buffaloes on Nov. 3 in St. Albert and the 2-2 draw Nov. 25 in Calgary.
At the Mac’s Cup in Calgary, the Raiders edged the Buffaloes 4-3 in pool play despite being outshot 53-28 as Calgary scored against Evan Fradette, the tournament MVP, at even strength in the second period and with a penalty shot and on the power play in the third.
The winning goal with 49 seconds remaining was a dump in off the boards by Mathew Rathbone that caught the Buffaloes’ netminder by surprise and Kye Buchanan tapped the puck into a wide open net.
The result put the Raiders into the playoff round and the rest is history for the Mac’s Cup champions.
Rathbone’s 3-2 OT winner on the power play in game four Friday at JRC Arena set the stage for Sunday’s 4-0 series clincher at Akinsdale.
Fradette (6-2, 1.57 GAA) stopped 27 shots for the shutout while goals by Mathieu Gautier and Ethan Whillans in the second and Eric Perneel and Brady Nicholas in the third during a 30-shot attack against Sebastian Cossa (5-3, 2.03 GAA) completed the playoff comeback.
Rathbone’s second playoff goal was a biggie to knot the series at two wins apiece. Brad Adams and Tyson Kowaluk assisted on the play at 8:06 in the second extra period and Nate Ibraheen of the Rangers in the penalty box for slashing.
Erik (Captain Clutch) Boers notched the equalizer with 1:36 left in regulation time with Nicholas and Logan McKinley drawing assists.
Tanner Sklaruk also potted a goal with the man advantage to open the scoring in the second.
Shots were 11-10 in OT and 46-41 overall for the Rangers as Fradette once again stood tall in net.
The Rangers (19-13-2, 106 GF/94 GA), ranked second in the north, posted OT victories of 4-3 in the first extra period in St. Albert and 3-2 in the third extra period at Fort Saskatchewan and both game winners were scored on the power play before the Raiders got back on track with a 3-1 decision last Wednesday in St. Albert.
Flyers provincials
Tonight’s provincial lid-lifter for the St. Albert Flyers is against the defending champions in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
Faceoff is 8 p.m. against the Lethbridge Hurricanes (28-4-2) at Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre.
Lethbridge won provincials the last two years and in the south division finished first as the top team in the AMMHL regular season.
The Flyers (21-10-3) tied for third in the north standings and in the division provincial qualifying tournament lost the March 10 final 5-3 to the Leduc Oil Kings (21-10-3) in Lloydminster.
Thursday the Flyers face off against Leduc at 11:45 a.m. at Meadows Community Recreation Centre and the next game is 8:15 p.m. against the host SSAC Bulldogs (12-17-5) at Callingwood Arena.
Friday’s start times are 11:15 a.m. against the Red Deer Chiefs (23-7-4) and 6:30 p.m. against the NWCAA Bruins (15-17-2) at the Meadows.
Saturday’s semifinals are 11:30 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. and Sunday’s finals are 10 a.m. for bronze and 1:15 p.m. for gold. All playoff games will be staged at the Meadows.
Visit www.ammhl.ca for the schedule and results.
In the north provincial qualifier, Ethan Sundar, David Saunders and Aidyn Hutchinson tied for the team lead in points with six apiece as the Flyers finished 3-1-1 in the tournament.
Sundar also led all scorers in the AMMHL regular season with 69 points and was second in goals with 32 in 33 games.
Royals playoffs
The rematch of the 2018 Rural & Edmonton Midget 15AA Hockey League final starts tonight in Red Deer.
Puck drop is 7:15 p.m. between the St. Albert Royals and Hockey Central Panthers.
Game two in the best-of-five series is 8 p.m. Thursday.
The rest of the playoff schedule was unavailable at press time.
Last year the Panthers, with a roster comprised of players from across central Alberta with Sylvan Lake, Lacombe and Olds as the main minor hockey association bases, swept the Royals for the championship.
This season the Panthers (24-1-5, 177 GF/39 GA) and Royals (23-3-4, 144 GF/56 GA) finished as the top two teams in the standings.
Head-to-head, the teams settled for ties of 1-1 Jan. 4 in Red Deer and 2-2 Feb. 10 in St. Albert and the Panthers won 6-1 Jan. 13 in St. Albert.
In the playoffs, the Panthers are 6-0 and the Royals are 6-1.
The Royals are coming off a semifinal victory over fourth-place SSAC Dolce Vita Homes (16-8-6) and the best-five series clincher was 2-1 in game four Monday at Millwoods Arena.
Luke Aston and Brydon Foster scored and the shot count was 36-19 for the Royals. In net was Jack Robinson (4-0, 1.75 GAA).
The first playoff loss for the Royals was 2-1 Saturday at Akinsdale Arena as SAAC potted the winner at 8:25 of the third period.
Kaelan Shelton knotted it at one on the power play in the middle frame.
Shots were 38-16 for the Royals and Ethan Weir (2-1, 2.68 GAA) tended the twine.
Owen Bourque leads all playoff scorers with 11 points while Shelton and Nico Gallo are tied for second with 10 points apiece.
Shelton’s six goals is also a playoff high.
Sharks provincials
The St. Albert Sharks skate into the midget elite provincials in the Alberta Female Hockey League as the top north division team after sweeping last weekend’s qualifying series.
Scores were 2-1 in a shootout and 5-2 against the Edmonton Pandas in St. Albert.
The Sharks (17-9) and Pandas (9-14-3) finished first and fifth, respectively, in the north and in the playoffs the Pandas needed three games to eliminate the fourth-place Lloydminster Steelers (12-14) while the Sharks had a first-round bye.
Provincials start March 28 in Grande Prairie for last year’s silver medallists.
The first game for the Sharks after ending the regular season Feb. 10 with the team’s third straight win and the eighth in 12 contests was Friday’s series opener against the Pandas.
Sykora Thornton opened the scoring in the second period and the Pandas tied it at 11:34 of the third.
Both teams were penalized once in the five-minute OT period and in the shootout Libby Langenhahn and Aidan Soltis scored while Layla Hood stopped two out of three Pandas.
Shots were 30-24 for the Sharks.
The next game was decided by special teams as Sierra Whillans struck on the power play and Soltis and Madison Murray tallied on the penalty kill to make it 3-0 in the opening period.
It was 3-2 Sharks when Whillans capitalized on the power play at 8:52 of the second.
Annika Neset’s empty netter completed the series sweep.
Katie Charko added two assists while Murray and Whillans finished with three points apiece.
The Sharks outshot the Pandas 35-16 with Laney Pasemko between the pipes.
In league play, Charko was the highest-scoring Shark with 18 points in 23 games and tied Langenhahn for the team lead in goals with 10 apiece.
