The groups are set for the St. Albert John Reid Memorial Tournament which takes place from January 20-23 at the Mark Messier, Performance and Troy Murray arena's in St. Albert.
Group 1
Kamloops Jardine Blazers (2)
SSAC Southgate Lions (6)
Leduc Allen's Transport (12)
Calgary Royals (13)
Group 2
Spruce Grove PAC Saints (8)
Airdrie Xtreme (11)
Seafair Islanders (10)
Notre Dame Hounds (3)
Group 3
BWC Bruins (1)
Phoenix Jr. Coyotes (NR)
St. Albert (9)
Red Deer White (15)
Group 4
Winnipeg Hawks (4)
Calgary Bisons (5)
Sherwood Park (14)
POE (7)
On the surface, it looks like Group 4 could be the most competitive with Group 1 not far behind. You have to think that BWC and Notre Dame should both win their groups. The Phoenix team has some very good players on it but its not clear how good they really are, they ae somewhat of a wild card. It would've been good to see the Prince Albert Pirates play in this tournament to see how they stack up. They have rolled through everybody in Saskatchewan this year and baring a major upset will represent Saskatchewan at Westerns. Prince Albert is a "AA" team and that is the reason those Saskatchewan teams aren't able to attend the prestigious tournaments in St. Albert, Medicine Hat, Kamloops etc...
8 comments:
Westerns are in Winnipeg I believe, and B.C. Championship play is in Abbotsford. Check out the Hockey Manitoba website. Westerns were in Burnaby, B.C. last year.
you are correct, thank you.
Prairie Storm represented Saskatchewan in 2008 I believe?
I see the pool winners looking like this SSAC ND St Albert Calgary Bisons.
Two team are very over rated
Bwc and Poe
Seafair in way over their head.
PA would not fair well here the top players on PA were average players this Spring the Sask Team the frosbites at the westerns last year did not do well facing top team this Centre four team will be no different Bwc did ok at westerns 3rd but again could not beat the top Alberta or Manatoba teams.Other teams that may surprise
Winnipeg solid team no stars hard working.
Airdrie if Net minding holds up
Calgary Royals if scoring can come through in big games.
Kamploops wont be under estimated here
You must be the same guy who made his bold predictions of ambhl teams at Med.Hat tournament.You must be from Calgary.I tend to agree with Seafair being over their heads.There will be 2 B.C teams in final 4.ND and St Albert.By now the top teams will be apparent.
From the looks of things PA is the top team out of Sask, as an outsider I hope they do well if they get to Westerns or any team from Sask. Hearing about how good the teams from BC and Alberta are all the time gets tiring.
Hockey is different in these three provinces. BC and Alberta have a considerably higher population so they have more players to choose from, plus they also have AAA which means they have fewer teams playing at the highest level. This is a step that Sask is going to correct for next bantam season, but for now and the past the Sask teams should not have been able to compete.
Why not give kids the credit they deserve it and encourage them to be better when they show that improvement is needed, instead of trying to knock them down with negative comments.
Oh and by the way the top Summer team last spring was a team from Sask as they won Calgary, and Winnipeg tournaments and lost in the final at Vancouver (a triple overtime Shootout loss) to Calgary. You can't go 17-1 and be average, sorry.
BC does not have AAA the way you describe.
In BC, the designation was only based on the size of the association. Additionally the AAA designation is history and has been replaced by Tier 1, Tier 2 etc.
These tiers are then further subdivided into flights in an attempt to create level league play. Once playoffs begin the teams are put together back into Tiers without flights.
The normal association boundaries still apply which makes our system very diferent than your version of AAA.
Most competitive pool will be SSAC, Leduc, Royals, Kamloops. SSAC should be the favorite in the pool, should be a dogfight for second.
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