Richard Froese
South Peace News

The High Prairie Red Wings have advanced to the West Division final series in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League.

High Prairie swept the Fox Creek Ice Kings in two straight games in the best-of-three semi-final series.

The Red Wings beat the Ice Kings 6-0 on May 15 and 12-2 on May 14 at the Sports Palace in High Prairie.

High Prairie head coach Kevin Hopfner expects a tougher competition from the Slave Lake Icedogs in the best-of-five division final series that starts May 19.

“It will be a good series,” Hopfner says.

“They’ve got a lot of their players back from injuries earlier in the season.”

He calls Slave Lake a hardworking team.

“If we stick to our systems, we should do well,” Hopfner says.

The league has scheduled Game 2 for May 21 and Game 3 for May 22.

If needed, further games would be scheduled for May 26 and May 28.

All games are at 7:30 p.m. and can be viewed online on gmhl.tv.

Results and updates are on the league website at www.gmhl.net.

The final game against Fox Creek was called off by the referee with 15:03 left in the second period.

Red Wing players on the ice were attacked by the Ice Kings.

“They jumped us,” Hopfner says.

“We were battling for the puck in the corner in the Fox Creek end and one of the Fox Creek players jumped one of our players.

“Then their goalie took of his gloves and mask and started throwing punches at our player.

The Red Wings did not retaliate.

“None of our players dropped their gloves,” Hopfner says.

“The referee ended the game because of a concern for safety.”

Red Wing goaltender Aidan Spraggs picked up his first shutout in the win.

Larry Yellowknee scored twice for High Prairie. Darby Berg, Blake Anderson, Benny Yellowknee and Mikal Chalifoux also scored for High Prairie.

In the first game, Yellowknee, Brandon McNabb, Berg, Benny Yellowknee, and Anderson each popped a pair for High Prairie. Hayden Weasel Head and Chalifoux also scored for the Red Wings.

High Prairie outshot the Fox Creek 44-40 as Bradley Roncin was in the High Prairie goal.

High Prairie closed out the regular season on a 19-game winning season after losing the first three games of the season.

The Red Wings crushed the shorthanded Enoch Northern Alberta Tomahawks 15-1 in High Prairie on May 7.

Larry Yellowknee scored three goals for the Red Wings who led 11-1 after the first period and 15-2 after the second period.

Theo Cunningham, Anderson and Dayton Shantz each added a pair. Natan Boucher, Jeremy Brooks, Chalifoux, Avery McNabb, Brandon Mc- Nabb and John Yellowknee also scored for High Prairie.

Shots on goal were unavailable.

High Prairie crushed the Tomahawks 13-1 May 8 in Enoch to close out the regular season.

Anderson and Berg led the way with three goals each. Kenyon Baptiste, Brandon McNabb and Chalifoux each popped a pair. Kenyon Baptiste added the other.

The Red Wings outshot the Tomahawks 56-22 as Mathieu Charbonneau covered the High Prairie crease.