The Bulldogs outplayed and outshot the Sherwood Park Crusaders but fell short 4-3 on Friday night. The loss keeps the Bulldogs in third place among BCHL Alberta teams with a record of 4-5-2-0 while the win has the Crusaders in second place at 8-3-1-0.
A fully caged Adam Raesler beat Gabe Gratton 5 hole to make it a 1-0 Crusaders game at 5:48 of the first period. The assists on the goal went to Zac Maxwell and Logan Hauer.
Grand Rapids, Michigan native Connor Gengle made it a 2-0 Crusaders game at 12:41 of the first period. The assists on the goal went to Vancouver native Dominic Payne and 20 year old Swift Current, Saskatchewan native Noah Wills.
Shots on goal in the first period were 19-6. Had any other goalie been in net for the Crusaders the game would of been 8-2.
Former Prince George Spruce King Hunter Price made it a 3-0 game on a breakaway at 14:59 of the second period with the assists going to WJAC Gold Medalist Ryan Zaremba and Noah Wills.
Cade Christiansen made the game 4-0 for the Crusaders at 16:51 of the second period with the assists going to the same two guys as the last goal in Ryan Zaremba and Noah Wills.
Shots on goal in the second period were 12-9 for the Crusaders
Luke Dahlen finally got the Bulldogs on the board at 5:29 of the third period. It was a big scramble in front of the net and the puck finally decided to go into the space it refused to enter for the last 2 periods. I think I seen the pot of Lucky Charms fall out of Roest’s ass after that goal. Assists on the goal went to Hunter Brown and Easton Adrian.
Jayden Joly scored less than a minute later at 6:25 of the third period to put the Bulldogs within 2. The assists on the goal went to Trent LeDrew and Alexander Dimitriadis.
Erik Roest had the trainer come out on the ice to check on what appeared to be an injury late in the third period when the score was 4-2. It kind of made a lot of people think. I don’t know how good the other goalie is but even if he is decent the Cru would probably lose most games by at least 5 goals without Roest. Could be a scary situation for them later on.
Dakota MacIntosh made it a 4-3 game with the goalie pulled and only 20 seconds remaining on the clock. But it was too little too late. The assists on the goal went to Luke Dahlen and Ryan Neumann.
Shots on goal in the third period were 15-14. The Bulldogs outshot the Crusaders 43-32 in the game.
Erik Roest was solid in net making 40 saves on the 43 shots that he faced for the win. While Gabe Gratton made 28 saves on the 32 shots that he faced for the Bulldogs.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Erik Roest 2) Noah Wills 3) Luke Dahlen
Attendance in Blackfalds was 563
Bulldogs next game is Saturday March 9th against the Brooks Bandits in Brooks. The Bulldogs next home game is on Saturday March 16th against the Okotoks Oilers followed by a Sunday afternoon game at home against the Sherwood Park Crusaders again on St. Patrick’s Day.
Brooks beat Okotoks 7-6 in overtime in the other Alberta game on Friday night.
Chilliwack Chiefs player Vladimir Nikitin will likely go down in BCHL history after scoring an extremely rare “goalie goal” from across the ice on Saturday night (March 2). The team was up 2-1 over the visiting Alberni Valley Bulldogs with just over two minutes left in the 3rd period. They were well on their way to victory, but the Bulldogs had two extra players on the ice thanks to a power play and pulling their goalie, and were closing in on the Chiefs’ net. A Bulldogs forward took at shot at Nikitin, but the 18-year-old Kazakhstan-born goaltender easily snagged the puck. He then did something few hockey fans have ever seen and fired the puck clean through the onslaught of players in front of his net, across the ice and into the waiting empty net.