The South East Athletic Club’s midget 15-year-old team has their playoff plans set for this weekend.
After a 6-2 home loss against the Calgary Bruins Saturday to end the regular season, the Tigers will head to Calgary Thursday for the Sutter Cup.
In Saturday’s game, the visitors led 5-1 after 20 minutes and never looked back. Daniel Ganert and Kieran Christianson scored for the Tigers, who actually outshot Calgary 33-28.
SEAC finishes with an 11-18-8 regular season record, good for eighth in the division.
They’ll face Calgary Royals Blue (7-25-5) in the morning at Winsport Centre, then the Lethbridge Hurricanes (25-5-7) in an evening game.
Also in their four-team round robin pool is the Calgary Canucks (20-13-4). Win the pool and you play in the medal round. There are also two wild card spots outside of the three pool winners who will play off for the fourth semifinal entry.
Tournament finalists advance to provincials.
Midget AA
The run at a repeat provincial title starts Thursday for the Jasper Homes Hounds.
Even better, they get to begin at home. Sort of.
The midget AA Hounds have the Moose Recreation Centre as their home base for South Central Alberta Hockey League division playoffs this weekend, plus top seed thanks to a 24-6-4 regular season record.
They’re coming off a road split, beating West Central 3-0 Saturday before a 4-3 loss in Olds Sunday.
Caleb Irvine, Ty Moore and Vaughn Strutt scored and Nate Hoffman had a 15-save shutout in the win. Olds came from behind in the third period Sunday after Irvine, Kyden Moore and Ty Olinski had spotted Medicine Hat a 3-2 lead. Brendan Olson made 28 saves.
The Hounds usually play at the Kinplex but the six-team tournament is booked for the Moose due to the junior B Cubs’ playoff run taking precedence.
Medicine Hat faces Foothills Thursday, 6:30 p.m., then Okotoks Friday at 10:45 a.m. and Taber at 5:15 p.m. The division final goes at 1:15 p.m. Sunday.
Bantam AAA
They’re massive underdogs but the SEAC Tigers aren’t about to throw in the towel.
The bantam AAA Tigers host Red Deer tonight, 7:15 p.m. at Hockey Hounds Recreation Centre in what could be their last game of the season.
Red Deer won the first game of the best-of-three Ram South Division series 8-2 Sunday. The Rebels finished the regular season a full 34 points ahead of the Tigers, who beat Airdrie in the opening round last week.
Of course, anything can happen in a playoff game and so South East will look to force Game 3, which would be Wednesday in Red Deer if needed.
In the other league quarter-final series, Calgary’s Flames beat the Calgary Bisons 3-2 Sunday in their first game. St. Albert needed overtime to beat Edmonton’s South Side Athletic Club 3-2 and Lloydminster beat Leduc 3-1 in the two north series’ first games.
Bantam AA
They made the semifinals but the bantam AA Hounds couldn’t get further in their league playoffs this past weekend.
At Lethbridge, the Hounds went 2-2 in the division final tournament. They beat the host team 3-0 Thursday, getting an incredible 34-save shutout from Kaige Schafer plus goals from Hayden King, Tavynn Schlaht and Josh Evaschesen. A 5-2 win over Taber Friday guaranteed them a semifinal berth, with Tyler Wakelam’s 33 save proving key along with two goals from Jayden Richards and singles from Evaschesen, Schlaht and Jesse Klimosko.
Wheatland finally broke through the Hounds’ D in a 7-4 win to wind up the round robin, but even then it was tied in the third period and Schafer made 50 saves.
The run came to an end Saturday, a 4-1 loss to Okotoks. Jacob Hazzard had the lone Hat goal and Schafer made 26 saves. Wheatland beat Okotoks 5-2 in Sunday’s final.
Peewee AA
Medicine Hat’s two peewee AA teams are off to Strathmore later this week for their playoffs.
Medicine Hat Black finished their regular season third in the division at 19-8-4, earning an 11-2 win over Olds Saturday and a 7-4 win over Airdrie White Sunday.
Orange is seeded fourth after a 17-12-2 campaign, which ended with losses of 5-4 Saturday in Red Deer and 5-2 to West Central Sunday in Sylvan Lake.
Both teams open playoffs Thursday.
Peewee girls
The Wildcats peewee girls team had no trouble in their second-round playoff series, beating Airdrie 13-1 Saturday and 4-2 Sunday to advance.
Keyana Bert and Myla Motz each had three goals in the opener, while Riley Gramlich and Keira Grant added two apiece. Katie Kuipers, Jayden Dennison and Cambelle Gross had the others. Grant, Gross, Kuipers and Alyssa Guy scored in Sunday’s win while Taya Christie was in net both games.
