AMBHL Weekend Re-cap

Tyler Steenbergen leads the scoring race early this season

The only bantam league in western Canada to have the season started is the AMBHL.  The Saskatchewan bantam league will begin play this coming weekend, while the BC and Manitoba leagues shortly after.

On Friday night, there was just one game with a much improved Edmonton MLAC squad defeating Alex Rotundo and Edmonton KC.  MLAC was led by the dynamic combo of Alex Volcan and Ryan Jevne who each scored 2 goals.  We would have to expect both Jevne and Volcan to be up amungst the scoring leaders this season.

Saturday night there was 6 games on the schedule with several blowouts.  The Calgary Bisons followed up an 11-4 victory over Lethbridge with an 8-2 victory over the Southeast Hockey Hounds.  D - Ryley Mckinstry, who we have ranked in the first round picked up another 3 assists, giving him 7 points in his first 2 games.  Matthew Phillips scored 2 more goals, giving him 4 and Jake Ashton scored a pair.  The Calgary Royals defeated the Red Deer White team by a score of 7-3 but the story of the game was once again Tyler Steenbergen who scored all 3 Red Deer goals.  Steenbergan, another one of our first round rated prospects now has 7-4-11 in just 3 games to start the year and is easily atop the scoring race.  The Lloydminster Heat opened their season by firing 65 shots at the Grand Prairie Storm and beat them 14-1.  The Heat had a fairly balanced attack with 12 different goal scorers led by Mason Shaw and Brayden Goulet with 2 goals each.  Edmonton SSAC skated past Leduc 11-3, led by a 2-2-4 night by returning forward Peter Tomares, a 3 point game by highly touted Tyler Benson and a 4 point game from one of the top dmen in western Canada - David Quenneville.  Talented '99 born forwards Anderson, Paterson and Hamblin all scored as well for SSAC and they will be players to watch this year and next.  Sherwood Park proved that they will be one of the top teams in the AMBHL this season with a 12-0 win over the rebuilding Edmonton CAC squad....Talented forward Skyler Mckenzie had 3 goals and highly ranked Sam Steel with 1-4-5.  Brandon Biro scored 2 times....Lethbridge defeated Okotoks 5-3 led by D - Taner Miller and his 1-2-3 along with Grayson Constable with the same 1-2-3.

on Sunday, there were 7 more games on the schedule.  Lloydminster followed up the 14-1 win over Grand Prairie with a 7-1 win over the same team.  Mason Shaw scored his 2nd consecutive 2 goal game and added 2 assists to lead the way.....Airdrie posted a 4-0 shutout victory over Southeast to drop Southeast to 0-3-0.  One of the top ranked goalies for the draft - Kurtis Chapman stopped all 18 shots for the shutout and Barrett Sheen led the offensive attack with 2-1-3.....The Calgary Flames got 14 saves from '99 born goalie Luke Eamon en route to a 4-0 shutout victory.  Cole Makar had 2-1-3 to lead the offence and Carter Cziakowski had 2 assists....The Calgary Bisons picked up yet another lopsided victory, this time beating Red Deer White 9-2.  The Bisons have now scored 26 goals in 3 games to start the season.  Leading the way for the Bisons was Dylan Williamson with 4 goals, while Slater Strong picked up a pair of goals.  Matthew Phillips also scored for the 3rd consecutive game.....The Calgary Northstar Sabres got 2 goals and 1 assist from 1st round ranked Parker Aucoin in a 5-2 victory over Red Deer Black.  Red Deer Black got 1-1-2 from D - TJ Brown.  Expect good things from Brown this year......Spruce Grove got 2-1-3 from Chase Hawkins and 1-2-3 from Sean Nault in a 7-3 win over Fort Saskatchewan.  Fort Sask got 2 assists from Brandon Hagel....Edmonton SSAC moves to 3-0-0 and look very good in doing so, after a 6-2 win over Edmonton MLAC.  '99 born Josh Paterson had 2 goals and 1 assist and Tyler Benson with 1-4-5 in the game.