Week 19 takes us out to Western Canada for our MYHockey Rankings/LiveBarn Games of the Week as there are plenty of showcase opportunities for players in both the Alberta Elite Hockey League and the Canadian Sport School Hockey League as league play enters the regular-season home stretch. At the same time, we can’t ignore the Motor City Girls Fest, which includes some of the United States’ top 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U and 19U Tier 1 girls’ teams.

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

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

Our next two Games of the Week are from the CSSHL, a school-based hockey league that produces most of Western Canada’s highest-ranked AAA boys’ teams. This is 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.

This week’s two featured CSSHL contests are from the U16 and U18 divisions. The CSSHL boasts 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 have 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 is a clash of the Titans as the top-ranked Calgary Edge School faces No. 2 Burnaby Winter Club Academy.

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

Our final Game of the Week comes from the AEHL’s U15 division, where we have 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 are a combined 52-2-0-0 in league play and have outscored their opponents by a combined margin of 337-109.

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

Week 19 MHR/LiveBarn Featured Games of the Week  

#2 Bay State Breakers vs. #10 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite

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

This is one of two top-10 showdowns during pool play at the Motor City Girls Fest. Bay State brought a record of 27-7-0 into the weekend and had outscored its opponents, 147-52. The Breakers had won their previous seven games, dating to a 3-1 loss against No. 2 East Coast Wizards Dec. 18. Six of Bay State’s seven losses came against the Wizards, who they also have beaten three times. Their other setback was vs. the No. 11 Charles Rivers Blazers in the second game of the season Sept. 11. Pens Elite was 28-11-0 entering the weekend and had outscored their opponents, 136-70. They had won the previous four outings since a 3-2 loss against the No. 9 Connecticut Jr. Rangers and a 3-0 setback vs. the No. 2 Wizards on Jan. 15 and 14, respectively. Pens Elite had a rough stretch against strong competition `in November that saw them drop four straight games to Canada’s second-ranked Stoney Creek Sabres as well as the United States’ Nos. 4 and 7 teams and Canada’s No. 12 club.

#3 Okanagan Hockey Academy vs. #7 Delta Hockey Academy

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 battle 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. Overall, Okanagan was 17-6-0 and had outscored its opponents, 82-57, while going 9-4-0 in its previous 13 games. These two teams met Jan. 22, with Okanagan skating to a 5-4 overtime victory. That was their fifth meeting of the year and the second to require overtime, Delta leads the season series, 3-2-0, but Okanagan has outscored them, 14-13. Delta brought a 16-14-0 record into the weekend and had played three-consecutive overtime games, going 1-2-0, leading up to the event. Cameron Norrie had paced the Okanagan offensive attack and ranked eighth in the CSSHL scoring race with 15 goals and 23 assists in 23 league outings. Delta’s Dalton Toma ranked 12^th in the league with 10 goals and 23 assists in 26 contests. Okanagan’s Jonah Tonhauser and Conner Nicolson had split time in goal, with Tonahauser posting a 9-3-0 record, 1.74 GAA and .933 save percentage and Nicolson going 9-4-1 with a 2.25 GAA and .914 save percentage. Delta’s Shay McVicker had appeared in 19 contests and was 10-6-2 with a 3.29 GAA and .913 save percentage.

#1 Calgary Edge School vs. #2 Burnaby Winter Club Academy

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 are at stake as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the rankings, who also are the first-place and third-place teams in the CSSHL, face 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. Edge School had outscored its league opponents by a 160-67 margin, compared to BWC Academy, which held a 103-51 scoring advantage over its foes. This will be the third meeting of the two teams this season. BWCA recorded a 3-2 overtime victory Oct. 15, with Edge posting a 5-2 win Nov. 28. Edge School dropped its most recent outing, 2-1, in overtime against the USA’s No. 14 Bishop Kearney selects and was 9-3-0 in its previous 12 games. BWCA entered the weekend on a four-game winning streak. Edge forward Terik Parascak ranked second in the CSSHL in scoring with 27 goals and 32 assists, while Burnaby’s Aidan Fischer topped all league goalies with an 11-2-0 record, 1.69 GAA and .934 save percentage.

#4 Airdrie Xtreme vs. #10 St. Albert Sabres

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 take on the North Division-leading Sabres in a top-10 matchup from the league’s U15 AAA showcase. Airdrie was 26-1-0-0 with 52 points in AEHL play heading into the showcase, 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 Nov. 11, with Airdrie securing a 3-1 victory. The Sabres had gone 1-2-0 in their previous three games and 17-3-0 in their previous 20. Airdrie entered the weekend on a three-game winning streak and had won 20 of its previous 22 contests. St. Albert boasts the league’s top-two scorers in Ty Meunier (73 points) and Mathieu Lajoie 62 points). Riley Boychuk of Airdrie ranks third in the league with 61 points.  Between the pipes, Xtreme netminder Steven Wawryk is 14-0-0 on the year with a league-best 1.80 GAA and .918 save percentage. Teammate Leif Oaten ranks third with a 12-1-0 record, 2.07 GAA and .903 save percentage. St. Albert’s Kai Zurowski is the AEHL’s second-ranked goalie and Is 10-1-0 with a 1.98 GAA and .920 save percentage.