SATURDAY, FEB. 3
Three Grande Peace Athletic Club teams will be showcasing their talents at the first GPAC Day an the Crosslink County Sportsplex in Clairmont on Saturday.
It will be back-to-back-to-back hockey as the GPAC Midget AAA Ernie's Sports Experts Storm hit the ice at 2 p.m. against the St. Albert Raiders followed by the GPAC Bantam AAA Global Bus Lines Storm at 4:45 p.m. against the Leduc Oil Kings and then the GPAC Boston Pizza Storm playing the Lloydminster Bobcats at 7:15 p.m. to put a wrap on the triple-header.
There will be prizes handed out, an auction and a 50/50 draw as part of the day's activities. Fans can also vote on the new GPAC jersey for next year.
“We have three of the five GPAC teams playing at the County Sportsplex and wanted to take the opportunity to showcase GPAC, the players, coaches and what we have to offer,” said GPAC president Tyler Stojan. “We highly encourage all GPAC players to come out and support our program during this day, whether your team is playing or not. If teams have played we would also expect players to support the other teams that would be playing later that day.
“We have extended invitations to minor hockey teams within Grande Prairie to come out and support all of our teams this weekend, have encouraged them to wear their jerseys to the games and have some fun at the same time. We also plan to have a few initiation teams play short scrimmages prior to a couple of the games (time permitting). We have also extended invitations to all of the All Peace Associations withine Zone 1 to come and see what we are about.”
The Ernie's Sports Experts Storm sit in seventh place in the Alberta Midget Hockey League Dodge Division with eight wins, 16 losses and six ties for 22 points. The Raiders are second in the Dodge Division at 13-12-5-31.
Two players to keep an eye on with the Ernie's team are Carter Massier and Edge Lambert.
Massier is 10th overall in league scoring with 19 goals and 15 assists for 34 points while Lambert is 16th overall with 28 points on 15 goals and 13 assists.
Jacob Charko leads the Raiders with 18 points on seven goals and 11 assists.
The St. Albert goaltenders, Mitchell Reidy and Evan Fradette, are ninth and 10th respectively among league goalies - Reidy with a 2.13 goals-against average and eight wins, five losses and three ties and Fradette at 2.22 and 5-7-2.
Lars Kaleil (3.28 and 6-8-3) and Ty Grant (4.05 and 2-8-3) are the Midget AAA Storm goalies.
The fourth place Bantam AAA Storm will be taking on a team that leads the Charger North Division in the Alberta Bantam Hockey League.
Leduc is No. 1 with 33 points on 13 wins, eight losses and seven ties. The Global team sits fourth in the Charger North Division with a 12-16-2 record.
Hayden Smith (17-21-38) of the Storm Bantam AAA is 15th overall in league scoring while teammate Jayden Watson (20-15-35) sits 18th overall. Top Leduc point-getter is Blake Roche (16-11-27).
Leduc's Graden Lynes is sixth overall in goaltender average at 2.20 with a 5-3-2 record. Terris Lappenbush (3.79 and 9-10-1) and Eric Schultz (4.07 and 9-10-1) are the Global goalies.
The Boston Pizza Storm are in sixth place in the North Division of the Northern Alberta Hockey League (Midget AA U16).
They have 10 wins, 12 losses and eight ties for 28 points while the Bobcats are ninth in the North with a 8-11-8 for 24 points.
BP is led in scoring by Ty Toews who is fifth overall with 16 goals and 23 assists for 39 points. Sheldon Kwiatkowski is 19th overall at 18-14-32. Top Lloydminster point-getter is Ryder Kenyon at 9-15-24.
Lloydminster's Tristan Martin is 12th overall among all goalies with a 2.52 goals-against average. He has two wins, five losses and five ties.
McCoy Bidewell (3.14 and 9-8-8) and Rylan Labrie (4.90 and 1-4-0) are the Boston Pizza netminders.
There is no charge to watch GPAC games.
