Despite playing shorthanded because of a rash of injuries and sickness, the Lloydminster Lancers continue to keep themselves in contention for a playoff position in the U18 AAA division of the Alberta Elite Hockey League.
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Although they lost 7-0 on Sunday against the host St. Albert Raiders, the Lancers scored a 6-4 home victory on Saturday over the Sherwood Park Kings.
Lloydminster, with an 11-16-5 record, was tied in points with the Edmonton Junior Oilers Orange (12-15-3) for the sixth and final playoff berth in the North Division.
Oilers Orange was scheduled to play the division leaders, the Edmonton Junior Oilers Blue (24-5-3), last Wednesday night, after this week’s Meridian Source went to press.
Last weekend, Oilers Orange visit the Lancers in a critical head-to-head battle at 6:45 p.m. Saturday at the Hub.
Lloyd hit the road Sunday for a 4:45 p.m. game against fourth-place Sherwood Park (17-15-2), the same team that the Lancers recently defeated at the Hub.
In that game, veteran defenceman Denton Setzer scored the winning goal with 4:20 left in the third period and Alec Robinson added an insurance marker 36 seconds later.
It was the first goal of the season for Setzer, and it came in his 30th game in the 2025-26 campaign. Overall, the Wainwright native just recently hit the 100-game milestone as a member of the U18 AAA Lancers.
In the key win over Sherwood Park, Setzer had a two-point game as five Lancers contributed multi-point games.
Now with 16 goals and 38 points in 32 games, Lloydminster scoring leader Kael Scott led the way with two goals and two assists. Ty Domshy supplied one of each, including a short-handed goal. Graydon Kvill and Kelton Doolaege each had two assists.
The opening Lloyd goal came from Gavin Pratt, whose 15th marker of the season came on a power play and evened the score at 1-1. Scott, with his 15th, put the Lancers up 2-1 in the final minute of the first period.
Sherwood Park came back from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to twice tie the game, but Lloydminster got the job done in the final five minutes.
Asher Ammann, with his fourth straight win, made 41 saves in the Lancers’ net.
After winning his previous four games, six-foot-four Cole Chorostkowski blocked 29 of the 35 shots in the Kings’ goal.
Landon Horiachka, with two points, Knox Bendera, Zak Stabbler and Michael Warawa, with the game-opening power-play tally, scored the Sherwood Park goals.
Lloyd had just 15 skaters dressed for Saturday’s game, which saw defencemen Cobin Garnett and Ace Brewer return from injuries and forward Hunter Prybysh called up from the U17 AAA Lancers. Prybysh also played with the U18 AAA club on Sunday as Lloyd again went with 15 skaters.
Stran Edge started Sunday’s contest, but he gave way to Ammann when St. Albert (18-9-7) took a 4-0 lead just a minute into the second period. The two Lloyd goalies faced a combined 39 shots. The Raiders’ Kai Zurowski made 21 saves for his second shutout of the season.
St. Albert forward Jadon Fischer, who had a four-goal game against the Lancers back in October, tallied twice on Sunday. He and Kyle Denis each netted third-period power-play goals.
Kai Richards, with two goals and an assist, Taye Schaufele and Lucah Lamb also scored. Carson Ralph bagged three assists to give him 33 points in 31 games.
Including their two games this coming weekend, the Lancers have six contests remaining in their regular-season schedule.
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