The Blackfalds Bulldogs rolled into Sherwood Park on Saturday and handed the Crusaders a 6-1 beating in their first meeting of the new BCHL season. Antoine Gauthier opened the scoring late in the first, then the visitors poured it on in the second with goals from Krisjanis Sarts, Matthew Croxall, and Martins Avotins to take a commanding 4-0 lead into the third. Croxall added his second early in the final frame and Artur Akhmadullin capped it late, while the Crusaders managed only a single third-period reply. Blackfalds converted 4 of 11 power plays and outshot Sherwood Park 39-41 in a dominant road performance that improved the Bulldogs to 2-0. Kastelan was outstanding in net, shutting the door and giving the visitors a rock-solid foundation.It was a strange atmosphere at the Randy Rosen. The building looked sparse — hard to believe there were even 400 people in the stands — and most of the noise that carried was Bulldogs cheers. Media coverage has been thin so far this season; even the Bulldogs’ socials and highlights have been a little light, while the Crusaders’ Twitter account has been dead since May of last year and their media presence is basically nonexistent. The first two periods felt like a parade to the penalty box, with the officials handing out calls so freely it almost seemed like they were getting paid on commission. Despite the chaos, the Bulldogs stayed composed and took care of business.
Antoine Gauthier scores on the Power Play at 13:12 of the first period. The assists on the goal went to Carter Matthews and Kitchener, Ontario native Josh Kaufman.
Shots in the first period were 12-11 for the Crusaders
Bulldogs make it 2-0 when Cru goalie Tyler Rounds made a beautiful pass right on the tape of Krisjanis Sarts stick who made no mistake and scored his first goal of the season just 57 seconds into the second period. Unassisted.
Matthew Croxall scores to make it 3-0 at 8:45 of the second period while on the Power Play. The assists on the goal went to former Navan Grad Shayle Simons and Carter Matthews.
Magnus Avotnis makes it a 4-0 game at 19:27 of the second period. The assist on the goal went to Artem Akhmadullin.
Shots on goal in the second period were 18-12 for the Bulldogs
Matthew Croxall scores his second goal of the night to make it a 5-0 game for the Bulldogs at 4:25 of the third period while on the Power Play. The assists on the goal went to Shayle Simons and Henry Kress.
The Cru finally got on the board at 10:09 of the third period with an unassisted goal by Moscow, Russia native Dmitri Pavlov.
Former Surrey Eagle and Russian Import Artem Ahkmadullin makes it 6-1 at 18:46 of the third period. The assists on the goal went to Krisjanis Sarts and Josh Kaufman.
Shots on goal in the third period were 17-10 for the Crusaders. The Crusaders outshot the Bulldogs 41-39 in the game.
Ivan Kastelan stopped 40 of the 41 shots that he faced for the win for the Bulldogs. For the Crusaders Tyler Rounds stopped 25 of the 29 shots that he faced in the first 2 periods of play. In the third period he was replaced by Justin Robinson who stopped 8 of the 10 shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Ivan Kastelan 2) Matthew Croxall 3) Dmitri Pavlov
Attendance in Sherwood Park was 396
Bulldogs next game is Friday September 25th at the Frank Crane in Nanaimo against the Clippers
One would expect lengthy suspensions for these two plays. The only things the kids may have going for them is the very horrible camera work from that god ugly arena, covered in just as ugly netting mesh. Also the fact that the league may feel sorry for them that they are playing there and be leinent as they figure they suffer enough just being there.
I have no idea where this happened. I would not be surprised to see that kid wearing a Crusaders jersey in a few years. If they haven’t approached him already they probably will. For the years I have been watching the Sherwood Park Crusaders no player best defines their team philosphy better than this kid. Future captain when his juvie sentence is done. Again no Jumbo tron in Sherwood Park so a very high chance of getting away with bush plays like this too (especially if Devlin is reffing). And with virtually no witnesses (fans) at all in the arena like ever, players could relive the Hanson Brother experience with little interuption or implecation. Besides being an ultimate idiot what other perks could there be from playing there? There are 19 other better locations in the league.