Junior B playoffs
The playoffs are a slap shot away for the St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
The Merchants have two games remaining and the Jets only one before the best-of-three qualifying round starts next week for both teams in the west division.
The third-place Merchants (22-14) will play the sixth-place Spruce Grove Regals (4-29-3) while the fifth-place Jets (13-23-1) will faceoff against the fourth-place Stony Plain Flyers (19-16-1).
The winners play the Beverly Warriors, the defending Founders Cup playoff champions and North Edmonton Red Wings in the best-of-five quarter-finals. Beverly (29-6-1) and the Red Wings (28-7-1) have first-round byes as the top teams in the west.
The Jets wrap up the regular season Sunday against Beverly at 8 p.m. at Clareview Arena.
Tonight the Merchants are the visitors against the Edmonton Mustangs (3-33) at Bill Hunter Arena and Sunday’s contest against the Flyers is at Jarome Iginla Arena. Start times are 8 p.m.
The Merchants are 13-6 with home-ice advantage after knocking off Beverly 3-2 in overtime on Josh Antunes’ 10th goal this season.
Kiegan Miller assisted on the team’s third shot in the five-minute extra period and his 10th goal knotted it at one as all the scoring in regulation time took place in the second period.
Stuart Dovey made it 2-1 with his 20th goal and 49th point.
Beverly beat netminder Nate Reinhart (4-1, 2.37 GAA) on the penalty kill and with the man advantage.
Beverly outshot the Merchants 11-5 in the third and 44-30 overall.
It was Reinhart’s fifth game since joining the Merchants in January.
The win by the Merchants was the fourth in a row during a 6-1 stretch in league play.
Incidents in the middle frame resulted in a four-game suspension to Cole Gupta, a repeat offender, for a gross misconduct and a one-game suspension for Andy Barr's third fighting major this season. Barr is the most penalized Merchant with 145 minutes in 35 games.
Friday the Merchants stoned the Jets 7-0 as Reinhart posted the team’s first shutout this season with 26 saves.
Antunes and Noah Fayad paced the attack with two-goal efforts.
Gupta, Scott Lancaster and Ryan Cooper netted singles.
Cooper leads the Merchants with 55 points and is second in goals with 24, one less than Bryce Sturm’s total.
Peter Corrigan picked up three assists and Antunes finished with a three-point night.
Luke Hall (7-13, 4.10 GAA) of the Jets faced 44 shots.
The season series between the junior B rivals featured the Merchants winning 3-2 Sept. 27 in St. Albert and 7-4 Nov. 16 in Morinville and the 5-1 road loss to the Jets on Dec. 10.
Sunday the Jets fell 3-1 to the Flyers in Morinville.
Raiders results
The St. Albert Nektar Raiders and Calgary Royals battled to a rare scoreless draw Sunday in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
Shots were 33-24 for the Raiders at Jarome Iginla Arena.
Andreai Proctor-Ramirez (14-1-3, 1.15 GAA) recorded his league-high fifth shutout and the team’s seventh.
Trystan Seif (5-7-5, 3.33 GAA) was in net for the Royals (9-14-6).
The eighth consecutive victory and the 17th in 18 games for the first-place Raiders (25-1-4, 117 GF/42 GA) was Saturday’s 4-2 decision against the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (14-11-4) in St. Albert.
Koehn Ziemmer and Kyle Norman on the power play and Matthew Reidy and Drew Kuzma at even strength provided the offence.
Jaxon Dube and Baaz Grewal collected two assists apiece.
The shot count was 31-25 for the Raiders and Proctor-Ramirez was in net.
The second-last game before the playoffs is 8 p.m. Saturday against the Red Deer Chiefs (16-10-3) in St. Albert and the Raiders are 12-1-2 on home ice.
The 2019 AMHL provincial finalists have a first-round bye as the north division pennant winners for the second year in a row.
Sharks on top
The midget elite St. Albert Sharks continue to lead the way in the Albert Female Hockey League's north division after winning one of two games last weekend.
Friday’s 3-1 loss to the North Central Impact (6-9-3) in Leduc was followed by Sunday’s bounce-back 3-1 result against the Edmonton Pandas (10-7-2) at Go Auto Arena.
The Sharks (13-5-1) hold the upper hand against the Lloydminster Steelers (10-6-2) and Pandas (10-7-2) for the division pennant.
Katie Anderson, Elianne Baril and Mikayla Sarapuk (power play) scored against the Pandas.
Shots were 21 apiece with Natalie Balag (7-1-1,1.52 GAA) between the pipes.
Sierra Whillans opened the scoring in Leduc.
The Sharks outshot the Impact 23-19 and Layla Hood (6-4, 1.95 GAA) was in net.
The Sharks are in Grande Prairie this weekend for two games against the Peace Country Storm (8-11-1).
Sabres ramp up
The stretch drive into the playoffs for the St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres starts Monday in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
The Sabres host MLAC (2-21-3) at 6:45 p.m. at Jarome Iginla Arena in the first of five games before the best-of-three opening round in the nitro north division and the opponent is expected to be the KC Squires (9-12-5).
The Sabres (21-5-2) and Calgary Flames (22-5) are tied for second behind the Red Deer Rebels (22-2-3) in the AMBHL overall standings.
The Sabres are coming off a 3-2 showing at the Okanagan Classic in Kelowna last week.
In the round robin, the Sabres lost 4-3 to the Okanagan Hockey Academy and defeated Seattle 6-1 and Fraser Valley Thunderbirds 6-0 to finish second at 2-1.
The playoff scores were 2-1 against Fraser Valley and the 3-2 shootout loss to Cariboo Cougars in the semifinal.
Ben Costantino, a defenceman, was named to the tournament all-star team.
