Merchants playoffs
The second playoff win for the St. Albert Merchants against the Beverly Warriors put the junior B team in position to advance into the semifinals for the first time since 2014.
The Merchants held the upper hand in the best-of-five series against last year’s Founders Cup champions entering game four Friday at Jarome Iginla Arena. The score was unavailable at press time.
A victory by Beverly would set the stage for Sunday’s deciding game at 8 p.m. at Clareview Arena.
Beverly swept the Merchants the last two years in the Capital Junior B Hockey League quarter-finals.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision at the Clareview rink followed the 5-2 result at the home of the Warriors after the Merchants lost game one 5-1 in St. Albert.
Nate Reinhart’s 41 saves in game three included 14 in the third period as the Merchants rallied with goals by Stuart Dovey and Ryan Cooper.
Dovey’s second of the playoffs was unassisted and Cooper’s team-leading fourth was set-up by Dawson Laycock and Peter Corrigan.
Beverly opened the scoring in the first.
The Merchants were credited with 42 shots.
After five playoff games, Cooper ranked first on the Merchants with seven points and Dovey was second with six.
Reinhart (4-1, 2.35 GAA) is among the top netminders in the playoffs.
In the west standings, Beverly (29-7-2) placed second for a first-round bye and the Merchants (23-14-1) were third for a berth in the best-of-three division qualifying round.
The teams split their four-game season series.
Sabres playoffs
The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres didn’t waste any time sweeping the KC Squires in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League playoffs.
Scores were 7-1 Tuesday at Jarome Iginla Arena and 4-3 Wednesday at Bill Hunter Arena.
Friday’s result between the Sherwood Park Flyers (15-14-4) and SSAC Lions (13-13-7) determined the next playoff opponent for the Sabres in the best-of-three nitro north division final. The score was unavailable at press time.
The Sabres (24-6-3) are ranked first in the north conference and third overall in the AMBHL.
The top scorers against KC (10-18-5) were captain Carmelo Crandell and Ashton Hutchinson with two goals and four points apiece and a pair by Hayden Selin.
The Sabres were outshot 38-35 in game one with Luke Roberts in net and 51-29 in game two with Adam Chin between the pipes.
Midget AA action
The St. Albert Steel close out the midget AA regular season in the Northern Alberta Hockey League today in Fort Saskatchewan.
Faceoff is 12 noon against the Rangers (8-18-4) at JRC Arena.
The Steel (24-5-2) are second in the Besa division behind the St. Albert Source for Sports Crusaders (28-3-1), the league’s No. 1 team as the defending Playoff Cup champions.
Two of the three losses for the Crusaders were against the Steel by scores of 6-4 and 8-6.
Upcoming for both teams is the Besa division playoff tournament to determine the metro conference semifinalist.
The seven-team competition starts Tuesday and is hosted by the PAC Saints.
Meanwhile, Brady Harroun of the Crusaders leads the NAHL with 47 goals and 70 points in 32 games and Aidyn Hutchinson is the Steel’s top scorer with 23 goals and 54 points in 29 games.
