The Blackfalds Bulldogs pulled off a solid 2-0 win over the Sherwood Park Crusaders last night, snapping their own two-game skid while pushing the Crusaders’ losing streak to five. From what I saw, the Bulldogs pretty much owned the puck battles all over the ice—they were winning just about every race and board fight. Both goalies stood on their heads, but Carson Mertz stole the show for Blackfalds. He picked up his first shutout in a Bulldogs jersey (he’s come close a bunch this year), and he really earned it late when Sherwood Park turned up the heat and threw everything at him in the final minutes. He just kept slamming the door.Big night offensively too for the new guy—Nikolaj Ruppi, who came over in that recent trade with the Cranbrook Bucks for Brendan Giles, scored his first goal as a Bulldog in his debut game with the team. Nice way to introduce himself. Speaking of Giles, he was only around for a short stint but seemed like a good player and fun to watch. Hope things work out for him in Cranbrook, though word is he might not have even suited up for the Bucks last night. Who knows what’s going on there—maybe still settling in or something. Anyway, good bounce-back win for the Bulldogs. They looked sharp.
Shots on goal in the scoreless first period were 8-6 for the Bulldogs
Thomas Neu scores his 19th goal of the season on a penalty shot to make it a 1-0 game for the Bulldogs at 3:12 of the second period.-Man, the Bulldogs have been getting so many breakaway chances these past few games and just can’t bury them—it’s been frustrating to watch. Finally nice to see Neu bury that penalty shot though. Kinda soft call to be honest, but hey, the refs had screwed them over with some awful ones earlier, so it all evens out I guess. And against Sherwood Park with their Mr. Clean-looking coach running the show? That just makes it even sweeter and hilarious.
Shots on goal in the second period were 13-6 for the Bulldogs
Newly acquired Nikolaj Ruppi scored his first goal as a Bulldog in his first game at 10:34 of the first period with the assists on the goal going to Nikita Meshcheryakov and Nikita Ivashchenko.–Ruppi blasted a one timer from the slot to make it a 2-0 game.
Shots on goal in the third period were 7-6 for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs outshot the Crusaders 28-18 in the game.
Carson Mertz earned his first shutout as a Bulldog and 16th win of the season stopping all 18 shots that he faced in the game. Ridgewood, New Jersey’s Jack Scali was the only reason this game wasn’t 10-0 made 26 saves on the 28 shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Carson Mertz 2) Thomas Neu 3) Nikolaj Ruppi. I almost would of considered hucking in Crusaders Jack Scali in there even over the last 2 Bulldogs. The kid played very well.
Attendance in Blackfalds was 636
Bulldogs next game is Family Day Monday February 16th at 4pm in Blackfalds against the Trail Smoke Eaters
For no other reason than this guys name, I wanted to see him play last night. He wasn’t there😩Because realistically if you filled your team full of Tits everyone would want to watch too.
The 2005-born left-shot blueliner began the 2025–26 season with EC-KAC’s U20 program in Austria, recording three assists in five games. A native of Ljubljana, Slovenia, Smolnikar also represented Team Slovenia at the World Junior Division 1A Championship last y, where he registered a goal and an assist across five tournament appearances.
The organization and Crusaders fans are excited to welcome Tit to Sherwood Park as he prepares to make his North American hockey debut.