Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
The regular seasons are winding down for all developmental leagues with some having been completed while others will see the final games being played this week.
Playoffs get under way this weekend for those leagues that have completed their regular schedules with the remainder getting into post-season mode early next week.
Following is a look at what Prince Albert’s entries in the Saskatchewan Male and Female Hockey Leagues have accomplished and what lies ahead for them.
U13AA Family Pizza Foxes – A perfect three-for-three swing through southern Saskatchewan on the weekend nailed down first place for the Foxes and gives them a first-round bye in the opening round of the playoffs.
The Foxes, who finished with a 23-2-1 record, edged the Weyburn Goldwings 3-2 on Friday to open the southern swing and followed that up with a 5-0 decision in Lumsden on Saturday against the Lynx. They then completed the perfect weekend with a 3-2 triumph over the Regina Rebels Red on Sunday.
Emma Trann, Prince Albert’s leading scorer, notched all three goals in the win over Weyburn and added single markers in both of the other games on the weekend. Trann finished the season with 58 points in 26 games, good for second place in league scoring.
Also scoring for the Foxes in the win over Lumsden were Danica Finch, Grace Wingert, Emma Dunn and Vada Martin while Wingert and Emmerson Palchinski rounded out the scoring in the win over Regina. Payton Braaten recorded wins in the Foxes’ goal in each of the first two games while Charlie Blanchard backstopped the team against the Rebels Red.
Prince Albert will now wait to see who their next opponent will be as they will square off against the lowest surviving seed from the opening best-of-three divisional quarter-final round.
U15AA Smitty’s Foxes – A long regular season came to an end on the weekend with the Foxes dropping both of their final two games, losing 4-1 to the Saskatoon Comet Impact on Friday before falling 5-1 to the Western Prairie Thunder on Sunday.
Aliyah Galloway had the lone Foxes’ goal against the Impact while Gracelyn Janzen was the only Prince Albert shooter to get on the scoresheet against the Thunder.
The results give the Foxes a 4-18-1-2 record and the sixth-place finish in the North Division standings has them meeting the Impact in the opening best-of-three round which begins on Thursday in Saskatoon. Game 2 of that series will be played on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Kinsmen Arena.
U18AA Family Pizza Foxes – A split in their final two regular-season games on the weekend gives the Foxes a 12-13-1-1 record overall leaving them in fourth place in the North Division standings and setting up a first-round series against the Western Prairie Thunder.
Rylee Jensen and Jaryn Fidler scored for Prince Albert in a heartbreaking 3-2 setback to the Warman Wildcats on Friday as the game winner in that contest was scored with just 18 seconds left on the clock. Jensen also scored in the final game when the Foxes rebounded with a 3-1 decision over the Saskatoon Comet Legends on Sunday. Maci Baillargeon and Emmah Rindfliesch completed the scoring against the Legend.
Dates have not been set for the best-of-three against the Thunder, but the Foxes will have home-ice advantage with the first game to be played in Prince Albert early next week.
U13AA SFS Buckeyes – All that is left for the Buckeyes is to try and improve their seeding, but unfortunately it will be in the consolation side of the draw as an 8-8 tie against the Humboldt Broncos on Saturday and a 7-4 loss to the Saskatoon Mission on Sunday leaves Prince Albert with a 5-14-2 record and in last place in the 13-team North Division.
Brody Parenteau led the way with two goals in the draw against Humboldt while singles were added by Nolan Kihn, Boston Byers, Brent Fazio, Cameron Fiddler, Weston Nygaard and Griffin Whitfield. Parenteau also had a pair of tallies against the Mission with Kihn and Whitfield each adding singles.
The Buckeyes complete their regular-season schedule this week with home games on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against the Saskatoon Express and Saturday at 2:15 p.m. against the Saskatoon Kodiaks. Both games will be played at the Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre. One final game will be played on Sunday when the Buckeyes travel to Melfort to face the Northeast Wolfpack.
The top seven teams in the division advance to the championship side of the draw leaving the bottom six competing for the consolation title. Just five points separate the bottom six teams so Prince Albert can vastly improve its seeding with a strong final week of regular-season action.
Playoffs are set to begin next week, but should the Buckeyes get into the top two seeds on the consolation side they would have a bye for that round.
U15AA Venice House Pirates – The Pirates sent out a message to the rest of the league on Sunday when they easily got past the second-place Saskatoon Stallions 7-2 setting the table for an exciting finish to the regular season this week.
The Pirates, who improved to 20-3-2 on the season with the lopsided win, are now just two points back of the Stallions with two games left on the schedule. They are, however, only two points clear of the fourth-place Saskatoon Generals, a team they will conclude the regular season with when they host the Generals at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre. Before that game, however, they will also host the Saskatoon Outlaws on Saturday at 7:45 p.m., again at the Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre.
Jordan Labelle was the catalyst in the win over the Stallions on Sunday scoring three times and setting up two others with Hudson McDougall, Caleb Philp, Lachlan Vandall and Carter Krahn adding singles.
First place is out of reach for the Pirates as the Warman Wildcats have laid claim to that spot, but depending where they finish Prince Albert could play either the Humboldt Broncos, Saskatoon Outlaws or Northwest Stars in the opening best-of-three series which is scheduled to begin early next week.
U16AA R&W Collision Renegades – The Renegades long ago secured top spot in the North Division standings, but this past weekend they got a look at how they stack up against the best from the South Division and it wasn’t favorable as the Sask East Oilers skated away with a pair of victories winning 7-3 on Saturday and 4-2 on Sunday.
Josh Boechler, Josh Bonthoux and Bentley Mitchell scored for the Renegades in Saturday’s setback while Bonthoux and Rhett Franklin hit the scoresheet in Sunday’s defeat, a game in which they fell behind 4-0 by the middle of the second period before making the score respectable with the pair of late markers.
Prince Albert had opened the busy weekend with a convincing 8-3 victory over the Northwest Stars with Franklin leading the way with four goals and an assist. Jive Schultz also had a strong game with two goals and an assist with Emmet Kihn chipping in with a goal and a pair of helpers. Jaxson Boyer completed the scoring. Kihn’s output gives him 61 points in 31 games good for third place in the league scoring race.
The Renegades, who have a 20-10-1 record, conclude the regular season this weekend with another full slate of games as they travel to Saskatoon on Friday to face the Bridge City Blues before returning home for a doubleheader against the Sask East Oilers. The two divisional leaders will square off on Saturday at 8:15 p.m. and again on Sunday at 2:45 p.m. Both games will be played at the Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre.
Playoffs are set to begin next week with the Renegades to meet the Northwest Stars in the best-of-three divisional semi-final round. Dates have not been finalized, but the series will open in Prince Albert.
U18AA Lake Country Co-op Timberwolves – It will be a busy final week for the Timberwolves as they will play four games in seven days, but the pressure is off for qualifying for the post-season even though they never took to the ice last week.
With a 9-13-2-2 record entering this week’s action the Timberwolves can’t be caught by the three teams below them thanks to the Northwest Stars and Parkland Elks failing to pick up a victory last week and the Northeast Wolfpack running out of games to catch Prince Albert.
The Timberwolves finish the schedule with three road games as they are in Martensville on Wednesday to face the Marauders before heading to Warman on Friday to take on the Wildcats and concluding the trip with a date in Humboldt on Sunday to play the Broncos. Prince Albert also hosted the Saskatoon Crunch on Monday, but results were unavailable.
Prince Albert will need a sweep of those final games to move up in the standings. As it presently sits they will likely be taking on the division-leading Saskatoon Riverkings in the opening round with the best-of-three set to start early next week.
