RED DEER – Playoffs are here for the Alberta Female Hockey League’s U18 AA teams. Four teams earned first round byes with eight teams battling it out in the first round.
The first round begins on Thursday, March 7 with the Always Find a Reason to Smile PCFAC Storm and St. Albert Raiders Sharks. The remaining first round series kick off the following day.
The top two teams from each division get a bye to the second round and await the winners of the first round series. The North Central Impact and Edmonton Pandas were the North Division leaders, separated by 10 points. Edmonton finished with a record of 19-9-3 while North Central locked down first place by winning 21 of their 31 games with only four regulation losses.
Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs and Calgary Fire White led the pack in the South Division. Red Deer finished with 74 points in 31 games, including going 9-1 in their final 10 games. Calgary came in second with 22 wins and 67 points.
Edmonton Pandas Lena Loomer led the U18 AA division with 23 goals and 41 points in 31 games, including five powerplay goals, three shorthanded goals and three game winning goals. Calgary Fire Red forward Eden Schellenberg finished the season as the league leader in points-per-game with 1.34. Goaltending leaders became a two-horse race with Red Deer’s Brylee Hull and North Central’s Ainsley Stauffer-Rolseth. Hull led the way with 16 wins and .933 save percentage, Stauffer-Rolseth had the best goals-against-average with 1.57. The duo tied for most shutouts with four each.
All series are best-of-three. The first-round matchups are as follows:
North Division Quarterfinals:
St. Albert Raiders Sharks vs Always Find a Reason to Smile PCFAC Storm
Sherwood Park Fury vs Lloydminster Musgrave Steelers
South Division Quarterfinals:
Calgary Fire Red vs Southern Express
Rocky Mountain Raiders vs Airdrie Lightning
For complete schedules and links to the FloHockey broadcasts, check out the Playoffs tab on the U18 AA website.