We finally made it back out to Western Canada for our MYHockey Rankings/LiveBarn Week 19 Games of the Week. It was an easy week to find great games there with so many showcase opportunities for players in both the Alberta Elite Hockey League and the Canadian Sport School Hockey League as league play entered the regular-season home stretch. At the same time, we couldn’t ignore the Motor City Girls Fest, which included some of the United States’ top 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U and 19U Tier 1 girls’ teams.

Our first highlighted game of the weekend did take place in Detroit at Girls Fest, a tournament that included 65 teams competing across the five age groups. Our Game of the Week from that event was in the 12U Division, which had 11 competing American teams, none of which was ranked lower than 29^th, as well as the No. 29 U13 team from Canada. The 12U field included five top-10 teams and seven clubs ranked among the top 20. Our highlighted matchup featured the top-ranked Bay State Breakers against No. 10 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite Saturday morning.

Bay State won that game, 4-1, and three others before falling into the semifinals to the third-ranked Windy City Storm, 6-3. Windy City wound up going 6-0 on the weekend and knocked off No. 7 Little Caesars in the championship game, 2-1. Little Caesars had beaten the No. 8 Chicago Mission in the semis, 3-1, after falling to them by the same score during pool play.

CLICK HERE for the complete Motor City Girls Fest schedule and results. Tournament games that were played at Big Boy Arena in Fraser, Mich., and Buffalo Wild Wings Arena in Troy, Mich., can still be seen on LiveBarn.

Our next two Games of the Week came from the CSSHL, a school-based hockey league that produces most of Western Canada’s highest-ranked AAA boys’ teams. It was pretty much a showcase weekend for the CSSHL, with various sites assigned to host all the teams from a specific age group for a weekend full of great U15, U16, U17 and U18 action.

Our two spotlighted CSSHL contests were from the U16 and U18 divisions. Heading into the weekend, the CSSHL boasted seven of Western Canada’s top-10 U15 boys’ programs, all of the top-10 U16 teams and six of the top-10 U18 clubs. For our U16 matchup we had third-ranked Okanagan Hockey Academy taking on No. 7 Delta Hockey Academy in a battle between the CSSHL’s third- and fourth-place teams. The U18 matchup was a clash of the titans as the top-ranked Calgary Edge School faced No. 2 Burnaby Winter Club Academy, with BWCA pulling off the minor upset, 4-1.

CLICK HERE for the CSSHL’s weekend schedule and scores.

Our final Game of the Week came from the AEHL’s U15 division, where we had the South Division-leading and fourth-ranked Airdrie Xtreme facing off against the North Division-leading No. 10 St. Albert Sabres as part of the league’s U15 showcase weekend in Leduc, Alberta. These two teams were a combined 52-2-0-0 in league play entering the contest and had outscored their opponents by a combined margin of 337-109. Surprisingly, Airdrie stormed away with a 9-1 blowout victory in this matchup.

All AEHL U15 games can be seen on HockeyTV. CLICK HERE for the full showcase schedule and results.

Week 19 MHR/LiveBarn Featured Games of the Week  

#2 Bay State Breakers (4), #10 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite (1)

Level: USA Girls 12U Tier 1

Date: Saturday, February 4

Time: 8:50 a.m. ET

Location: Buffalo Wild Wings Arena – Troy, Mich.

Event: Motor City Girls Fest

Stream: LiveBarn

Bay State handed Pens Elite a 4-1 setback in this top-10 matchup and won three other games en route to a semifinal contest against the No. 3 Windy City Storm, who ultimately knocked them out of the tournament by a 6-3 margin. The Breakers concluded the tournament with a 31-8-0 overall record and holding a season-long scoring advantage of 172-62 over its opponents. Pens Elite went 1-3-0 at the tournament, with two of the losses coming against top-10 foes, and is now 29-14-0. They dropped to No. 12 in this week’s rankings, while Bay State held on to its spot at No. 2. Tournament-champion Windy City remained at No. 3 this week and is 52-14-3 on the year. In this contest, the two teams battled to a scoreless tie through two frames before the Breakers exploded with goals from Ava Carr, Kelsey MacPherson and Avery Frias in the first six minutes of the final period. Katheryne Monko responded for Pittsburgh to cut the margin to 3-1, but Carr netted her second goal on the power play to put the game away. Maeve Phinney made 20 saves in goal for Bay State to earn the victory.

#7 Delta Hockey Academy (6), #3 Okanagan Hockey Academy (5)

Level: Western Canada Boys U16 AAA

Date: Saturday, February 4

Time: 2:00 p.m. ET

Location: Charlie Purdey Arena – Shawnigan Lake, B.C.

Event: CSSHL League Play

Western Canada’s third- and seventh-ranked teams battled it out while jockeying for third place in the CSSHL. Okanagan entered the weekend in third place with 51 standings points, seven more than Delta despite playing one fewer game. This game got off to a flying start, with the teams combining for six first-period goals as the opening frame concluded with the score 3-3. Delta extended the margin to 5-3 after two periods and 6-3 in the third before a late rally by Okanagan provided the 6-5 final. Nicholas Campbell had two goals for Delta, with Dylan Lazaroff notching two goals and an assist while Brett Woodard and Jasper Felbaum each contributed a goal and an assist. Luke Sowpal, Dylan Duquette and Dalton Toma recorded a pair of assists each for the Wild, and Jake Poblete made 27 saves to earn the win. Five different players scored for Okanagan: Dylan Cawley, Simon Cecconi, Tucker Robertson, Bradley Schmidt and Tate Wilkinson. Robertson also contributed a pair of assists, and Cecconi finished with a goal and a helper. Delta outshot Okanagan, 39-32. Okanagan (19-9-0) maintained a four-point advantage over Delta in the CSSHL standings after going 1-2-0 on the weekend. Delta splits two weekend matchups and is 18-14-0 overall for the season. Both teams maintained their spots in the MHR Western Canada Boys AAA rankings.

#2 Burnaby Winter Club Academy (4), #1 Calgary Edge School (1)

Level: Western Canada Boys U18 AAA

Date: Saturday, February 4

Time: 3:30 p.m. ET

Location: Kyle Stuart Memorial Arena – Calgary, Alberta  

Event: CSSHL League Play

Western Canada and CSSHL bragging rates were at stake as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the rankings, who also were the first-place and third-place teams in the CSSHL, faced off. Edge School came into the weekend at 24-2-0 in CSSHL play with one overtime loss and two shootout victories, while BWC Academy was 19-4-0 in league play with a shootout win. That left Edge with 77 standings points, 19 ahead of BWCA, which had five games in hand. Burnaby raced to a 3-0 lead after two periods in this one and extended the margin to 4-0 in the third before Edge finally snuck one past goaltender Massimo Urbani. Ty Coupland set the tone by scoring his first of two goals just 54 seconds into the game, and BWCA never looked back. Carter Lundie finished with a goal and an assist, with Nate Crema adding a goal. Maxim Shushkov tallied the lone marker for Edge School. Urbani stopped 24 of 25 Edge shots to record the victory. Edge concluded the weekend 38-10-0 overall and still ranked No. 1 with a 13-point points advantage over Burnaby, which moved into second place and still has played five fewer games. BWCA held on to its No. 2 ranking and is 24-6-0 overall.

#4 Airdrie Xtreme (9), #10 St. Albert Sabres (1)

Level: Western Canada Boys U15 AAA

Date: Saturday, February 4

Time: 9:30 p.m. ET

Location: Wihauk Beef Jerky Arena - Leduc, Alberta

Event: AEHL U15 Showcase

Stream: HockeyTV 

The AEHL South Division-leading Xtreme took on the North Division-leading Sabres in a top-10 matchup from the league’s U15 AAA showcase. Airdrie entered the weekend at 26-1-0-0 with 52 points in AEHL play, while St. Albert was 26-1-0-0, also good for 52 points. Overall, the Xtreme were 40-5-0 and had outscored their opponents, 239-100. St. Albert was 31-10-1 and held a 222-118 scoring advantage over its opponents. These two teams met back in November, with Aidrie recording a 3-1 victory, but this game would be much different as the Xtreme tallied three times in each period to skate to a surprisingly easy win. It was a dominant weekend for Airdrie, which went 3-0-0 at the showcase and outscored its opponents, 24-2. The Xtreme are now 43-5-0 on the year and moved up to No. 3 in the MHR Western Canada U15 Boys AAA rankings. The Sabres beat the No. 11 Calgary Bisons, 6-5 in overtime, and the No. 21 Edmonton K.C. Squires, 3-2, in their other two showcase outings and are 33-11-1 on the year. Those victories allowed them to hold on to their No. 10 Western Canada ranking. In this game, Riley Boychuck led Airdrie’s nine-goal attack with three goals and two assists, with Caelan Joudrey adding 2-2-4. Will McLaughlin and Aaron Swatzky each contributed a goal and an assist, while Matthew Hilderman and Braedon Bohach-Murray added a single goal apiece. Aden Bouchard (three assists), Griffen Horne (two assists) and Benett Kelly (two assists) were the Xtreme’s other multiple-point scorers, and Leif Oaten made 21 saves to pick up the win in goal. Gavin Faul scored the lone goal for St. Albert.