CALGARY — The Red Deer Northstar Chiefs dropped a 4-3 decision to the host Calgary Royals Gold Thursday but were still in good shape heading into today’s final round-robin games of the Alberta minor midget AAA hockey championship.
Meanwhile, the Red Deer IROC Chiefs are in danger of missing the playoffs in the six-team event after falling 2-1 to the Lloydminster Rage and gaining a 2-2 draw with the St. Albert Flyers earlier in the day.
Northstar, which got goals from Chase Thudium, Mik Doell and Jordan Steenbergen and a 27-save outing from Carson Franks in the loss to Calgary, sits in second place with a 2-1-0 record heading into today’s action.
IROC, with Tyler Chavez Leech scoring against Lloydminster and Thomas Della Siega stopping 16 shots, are tied for fifth with a 0-2-1 slate. Colton Bobyk potted both goals against St. Albert, which was outshot 52-16 but put two pucks past Red Deer goaltender Joseph Desrosiers.
Northstar doubled Lloydminster 6-3 earlier in the day as Thudium and Steenbergen each tallied twice and James Gaume and Allan Pruss also connected for the winners. Ryan Bardick turned aside 29 shots for the Chiefs.
The two Red Deer squads tangled Wednesday night with Northstar pulling out a 7-1 victory despite being outshot 28-21. Scoring for Northstar were Gaume, Thudium, Steenbergen, Pruss, Ryan Swier, Andrew Nielsen and Teagan Kooman, while Gabe Bast potted the lone IROC marker. Franks made 28 saves for the winners. IROC starter Desrosiers surrendered six goals before being replaced by Della Siega.
St. Albert was atop the standings heading into today’s first game at 9 a.m. with a 2-0-1 record. Next in line were Northstar and Lloydminster at 2-1-0, Calgary at 1-1-1 and IROC and Edmonton Southside at 0-2-1.
Northstar concludes round-robin play today at 9:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. versus Edmonton Southside and St. Albert, while IROC goes against Calgary and Southside at 9:15 a.m. and 5:15 p.m.
The semifinals, with first versus fourth and second versus third, will be played Saturday at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The third-place games goes at 10 a.m. Sunday, to be followed by the championship contest at 1 p.m.