STORM WIN SERIES
They were supposed to win their first playoff round ... and they wrapped it up with an exclamation mark!
An 8-2 win over the Edmonton SSAC Athletics Tuesday at the Coca-Cola Centre settled a best-of-five Alberta Midget Hockey League Dodge Division quarterfinal series and has advanced the GPAC Ernie's Sports Experts Storm to the division semi-final. The Storm, who had come into the series as the third seed in the division, defeated the sixth seed Athletics 3-2 in games.
The next task will be tougher.
Waiting for the Storm in Fort Saskatchewan on Thursday will be the Rangers - the second seed in the division playoff. The Rangers got a first-round bye. First semi-final home game is Saturday in Game 2 in the Coca-Cola Centre at 3 p.m.
The two teams met twice this year with the Rangers winning in Grande Prairie 5-2 on October 28 and 4-0 in Fort Saskatchewan January 5.
Offensively the Rangers are led by Nate Ibraheem, who had 20 goals and 19 assists finishing eighth overall in AMHL scoring. Alex Thacker, who had 37 points on 10 goals and 27 helpers, was next up in 12th with 37 points.
Ranger netminder Ross Hawryluk was ninth-best among all AMHL netminders after the regular season with 2.52 goals against average and .923 save percentage.
Over the five games of the quarterfinal playoff against the Athletics, Edge Lambert and Jayden Watson led the way with seven points - each with three goals and four helpers.
Lambert scored twice on Tuesday, as did Sheldon Kwiatkowski, while Nolan Flint, Dayne Tews, Mason Hartman and Watson had singles. Joseph Hawkins and Ross Encarnacao scored for the A’s.
The Storm took period leads of 2-0 and 4-1 en route to the big win. Cam Beson was in goal for the fifth time for GP making 20 saves while the Storm fired 41 pucks at the combination of Ryley Osland and Riley O’Laney at the other end.
SSAC took five minor penalties and the Storm three before another huge crowd in the Coke Can.
In the other Dodge Division semi-final, the regular season champion St. Albert Raiders take on Edmonton CAC while in Chrysler Division semi-final play the Calgary Flames and Calgary Buffalos will tangle in one series and the Calgary Royals and Lethbridge Hurricanes in the other.
Here is the complete schedule for the Storm-Rangers series:
Thursday, March 28: Storm at Rangers (7:30 p.m. JUB)
Saturday, February 2: Rangers at Storm (3 p.m. Coke Can)
Sunday, February 3: Storm at Rangers (4:45 JUB)
Wednesday, February 6: Rangers at Storm (7:15 Coke Can if needed)
Friday, February 8: Storm at Rangers (7:45 JUB if needed)
