The Bulldogs came up just short Friday night losing to the Sherwood Park Crusaders 4-3.
University of Nebraska Omaha commit Robin Benoit scored his 5th goal of the season for the Crusaders on the Power Play to make it a 1-0 game. The assists on the goal went to Chris Battaini and goaltender Logan Kennedy who got the whole play started when he fired the puck down the ice to start the 2 on1 for the Crusaders.
Luke Dahlen tied the game up on a a nice finish on a 2 on 1 with Jack McAra at 7:17 of the first period. The other assist on the goal went to Jamie Darlison.
Shots in the first period were 15-13 for the Crusaders
Tyler Chiovetti made the game 2-1 for the Bulldogs at 6:13 of the second period while on the Power Play. The assists on the goal went to Joey Melo and Jayden Joly. Just looking on Elite Prospects and Chiovetti played last season at St. Andrew’s in Ontario. He was team mates there with fellow Bulldog Ryan Castle. Their teams leading scorer was Boston Bruins 2024 1st round pick Dean Letourneau. There are a few other BCHLers that played on that team also.
Aidan Castle gave the Bulldogs the lead at 8:10 of the second period when Luke Dahlen spotted him and sent him on a breakaway. Bulldogs lead 3-1 at this point.
Matthew Frost scored for the Crusaders at 17:42 of the second period with the assist going to Forrest Lake, Minnesota native Malachi McKinnon who was playing in his first BCHL game since joining from the Fargo Force of the USHL.
Shots in the second period were 14-10 for the Bulldogs
The Bulldogs had a 4 minute Power Play since late in the second period. So of course they didn’t score on it hell half the time you didn’t know they were on it and with only about 30 seconds left in it the Crusaders did though🙄 In the Bulldogs defense right before the Crusaders goal most players and the fans thought that the Crusaders were going to get a penalty for an obvious boarding prior (which wasn’t called) then Cooper Sharp got his 3rd goal of the season to tie the game at 2:11 of the second period with the assist going to Kale Dach.
Kale Dach scored the winner for the Crusaders at 7:33 of the 3rd period on the Power Play. The assists on the goal went to former Bonnyville Pontiac Nicolas Beaudoin and Jeremy Loranger.
With about 4 minutes left in the game the Bulldogs got a Power Play. It was an obvious hook but the ref didn’t call it right away. It almost looked like he made the call after the fans yelled at him to make it yet was uncertain of what to call until he had a meeting with the other refs. The players made mistakes so the refs also did too like blowing the whistle on a penalty call when the other team is in possession of the puck or blowing the whistle to stop the play when the puck was very visible for everyone to see. On the bright side the sloppy refing blended in perfectly with the sloppy level of play sometimes.
Shots in the third period were 16-13 for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs outshot the Crusaders 43-38 in the game.
Toronto native Logan Kennedy who played last season with the Haliburton Huskies of the OJHL made 40 saves on the 43 shots the he faced for the win for the Crusaders. For the Bulldogs Waylon Esche made 34 saves on the 38 shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Luke Dahlen 2) Nicolas Beaudoin 3) Tyler Chiovetti
Attendance in Blackfalds was 592
Bulldogs next game is Friday October 25th against the Spruce Grove Saints in Blackfalds
