The last time the Bulldogs lost a game was against the Oil Barons in For McMurray on November 21st. If the playoffs were to start today the Bulldogs would have to play the Oil Barons. A team for some reason they have went now 3-0 against this season.
Cody Pisarczyk is playing which is good but shocking after the way he landed last game I thought he broke his collar bone. 2 affiliates were called up as Loomer and Dimitriadis are away at the World Junior A Challenge.
Remember if you hear anyone swear or use foul language at the Oil Barons game make sure you notify the security there. The tv told me so I made note of it. I don’t know what will happen exactly if you do swear. Maybe that manly looking mobster mascot with the puck on his head comes over and roughs you up. If you ever watch MLB the mascot is similar sort of in silliness to the New York Mets mascot Mr. Met. Mascots are a great way to keep the fans entertained and you usually just have to give someone a free bar tab and they will do it.
Brendan Ross opened up the scoring at 9:38 of the opening period using Joly as a decoy on the 2 on 1. 1-0 Blackfalds. Assists on the goal to Hunter Brown and David Brandes.
A real bad give away by the Bulldogs, a perfect pass just to the Oil Baron who went in and scored to make it 1-1. This is where watching games played in Fort McMurray are stupid when the Barons score half the screen gets filled up with the players bio while the play is going on. It leaves them up there for a lot longer than most would like to see. It was former Lloydminster Bobcat Rylan Ringor who got an early Christmas present.
Shots on goal in the first period were 6-4 for the Bulldogs
Carter Schmidt scores his 7th goal of the season on a garbage rebound for Oil Barons to give them a 2-1 lead with the assists going to former Calgary Canuck Dylan Bidyk at 6:28 of the second period.
Tanner Willick ties the game up on the Power Play almost right off the face off with the assists going to Brendan Ross and Jayden Joly at 11:36 of the period.
Winnipeg native and captain Keefe Gruner scores for Oil Barons to make it 3-2 just 1:29 later at 12:55 of the second. The assist on the goal went to Demitri DiFlorio.
Brendan Ross ties it up with his 2nd goal of the game and 30th of the season when he grabbed a David Brandes rebound. There was 25 seconds left in the second period when the Bulldogs scored that goal. The game is tied most start thinking this is a good way to go into an intermission.
But then the Oil Barons took a 4-3 just 9 seconds later when former Sherwood Park Crusader Ryan Arnold scored his 5th goal of the season from Simon Diaz.
Shots on goal in the second period were 11-9 for the Bulldogs
Ethan Morrow started the third period in net for the Bulldogs.
DeFlorio scored his first AJHL goal to make it 5-3 at 15:21 of the third period with the assists going to Nikolas Hoogendoorn and Simon Diaz.
The 2 AP players played well in the Ice time they got. I also would like to point out how good of a game Josh Knittig had and how entertaining he was to watch. The guy has to score next game he is due for an explosion.
The loss also means that Blackfalds has lost the season series against the Oil Barons. The Bulldogs will not have to return to Fort McMurray this season (unless playoffs) and the Oil Barons come down to face the Bulldogs on February 18th. I am clueless as to why the Bulldogs can not win in Fort Mac. The isolation? Hoogendoorn and Rodman’s girlfriends with the signs in the stands, the mascot? The Oil Barons however played better this game than the previous 2 times the Bulldogs lost to them.
Shots on goal in the third period were 8-6 for the Bulldogs with the Bulldogs outshooting the Oil Barons 25-19
Gabe Gratton made 22 saves on the 25 shots that he faced for the win. For the Bulldogs Wilson Maxfield stopped 9 of the 13 shots he faced in the first 2 periods of play while Ethan Morrow stopped 5 of the 6 shots he faced in the final frame.
Attendance in Ft McMurray was 978.
Bulldogs next game is Friday December 8th in Bonnyville against the Pontiacs.
The Bulldogs have called up affiliate Jaxen Smyth from the Red Deer Chiefs of the AEHL and Aidyn Law from Lethbridge of the AEHL. Smyth played in an exhibition game earlier this year for the Bulldogs. Smyth is wearing #15 and Law will wear #18, I don’t think anyone new for awhile will ever want to put on the #26 for a bit, the last 2 guys that wore that number sort of set the bar really high on it.
