The Ernie’s Sports Experts Storm are moving on to round two. Following an 8-2 win over the Edmonton SSAC Athletics on Tuesday, the Storm will now face the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers in the division semi-finals of the Alberta Midget Hockey League playoffs.
In the quarterfinal round, Edmonton took the first game in the best of five series before the Storm evened the score on Friday with a 4-2 win in Edmonton. On the 23rd, the Storm beat the Athletics 3-2 taking a 2-1 game lead in the best-of-five series. Edmonton came back to tie the series and force a game five with a 4-2 win on Sunday. In Game five, the Storm knocked Edmonton out of the playoffs.
When it comes to the Rangers, they were ranked second in the standings and given a first-round bye. The Rangers and Storm met twice this year with the Rangers winning 5-2 in Grande Prairie on October 28th and 4-0 in Fort Saskatchewan on January 5th.
The Storm will visit the Rangers to kick things off on February 28 before returning to the Coca-Cola Centre on March 2nd. The Storm will then hit the road again to play the following night on the 3rd. Game four, if needed, will be held on March 6th in Grande Prairie and game five, if needed, will go back to Fort Saskatchewan on March 8th.