Midget AAA Slash
The St. Albert Slash skate into the weekend as the runaway leaders in the Alberta Female Hockey League.
The 21-2-1 midget AAA team travels to Red Deer today to play the Chiefs (3-19-2) at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday’s game against the Lloydminster Steelers (9-11-3) starts at 3:45 p.m. at Jarome Iginla Arena.
The Slash are winners of six of the last seven games since the Christmas break.
The Esso Cup national champions three years in a row have six games remaining before the Final Frozen Four provincial tournament starts March 20 in Calgary.
Jenna Goodwin leads the AFHL in goals with 12 and is tied for first in points with 20.
Midget AAA Raiders
The St. Albert Nektar Raiders close out the regular season in the Albert Midget AAA Hockey League today in Fort Saskatchewan.
Puck drop is 2:30 p.m. against the Rangers (15-12-4) at JRC Arena.
The Raiders (26-1-4) will finish first overall with the lowest goals-against average in the AMHL at 1.41.
Andreai Proctor-Ramirez leads all netminders with 14 wins, 1.15 GAA, .953 save percentage and five shutouts.
Ronin Pusch has scored a team-high 16 goals and captain Mathieu Gautier is first in points with 31.
The Raiders, last year’s provincial finalists, have a first-round bye as the top north division team for the second consecutive year for a berth in the best-of-five north semifinals.
Bantam AAA Sabres
The countdown to the playoffs continues this weekend for the St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres with four games left in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
Today the Sabres faceoff against the PAC Saints (14-14-1) 3:15 p.m. at Grant Fuhr Arena and the next home game is 6:45 p.m. Monday against the SSAC Lions (13-11-6) at Jarome Iginla Arena.
The Sabres (21-6-2) are first in the north conference and tied for third in the overall AMBHL standings with the Calgary Flames (22-6). The Red Deer Rebels (24-2-3) and Calgary Royals (22-7-3) are first and second, respectively.
The last game for the Sabres was the 4-2 loss to MLAC (4-23-3) earlier this week in St. Albert.
Captain Carmelo Crandell ranks 10th in league scoring with 41 points and is the team leader in goals with 26.
Midget AA teams
The St. Albert Source for Sports Crusaders have two games on tap in three days in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League.
The first-place Crusaders (23-3-1) play the Lloydminster Blazers (12-13-3) today at 5:45 p.m. in Josephburg and Monday the defending Playoff Cup champions host the PAC Saints (14-10-3) at 8:30 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
Last weekend’s three-game road trip featured wins of 7-5 against the GPAC Storm (13-13-2) and 5-3 against the Peace River Royals and the 4-3 loss to the Royals (15-9-4).
Brady Harroun is the NAMHL’s top goal scorer with 37 and is tied for third in points with 57.
Kaelan Shelton is second on the Crusaders with 23 goals and 45 points.
Meanwhile, the St. Albert Steel are in Fort McMurray this weekend for two games against the Barons (10-17-1).
The Steel (21-5-1) are ranked third overall in the NAMHL as the second-place team behind the Crusaders in the Besa division.
The Steel have also won four in a row as the only team to beat the Crusaders twice: 6-4 Dec. 14 and 8-6 Jan. 24.
Brett Reiter leads the Crusaders with 30 assists and 45 points, followed by Aidyn Hutchinson’s 19 goals and 42 points and Joshua Cyr’s 18 goals and 38 points.
