Saturday night at Eagle Builders Centre had the feel of a proper scrap from the drop of the puck. The Vipers rolled into town sitting near the top of the league but already deep in the weeds of a five-game Alberta road trip, and the Bulldogs matched them stride for stride in a back-and-forth 4-3 win that never really settled until the final minutes. Goals kept coming in pairs, the lead flipped hands more than once, and by the time the second period wound down the score was knotted at 3-3. Special teams stayed quiet all night—both sides went 0-for and cleaned up their own penalty kills—so it came down to even-strength hockey and a bit of four-on-four chaos late in the third.
That’s when Dean Toskos found the game-winner. Ivan Kastelan held the fort with 21 saves, the home crowd stayed loud, and Blackfalds walked away with two points against a team that had taken the first meeting earlier in the month by a 4-1 score. The Vipers will have a long, quiet bus ride ahead of them after dropping all three games to open this Alberta swing—a feeling the Bulldogs know well after their own rough Okanagan trip a couple of weeks back. For a Blackfalds side that’s still searching for consistency, nights like this matter: a hard-fought home win against a quality opponent gives the group something tangible to build on heading into the next stretch. It was almost shocking to see the YouTube highlights already up this morning.
20 year old Swedish Import Alexander Eklof opens up the scoring for the Vipers at 4:33 of the first period. The assists on the goal w ent to Kamloops, BC native Aaron Zulinick and St. Lawrence commit Van Martin. Eklof scored a garbage goal on a scramble infront of the net. Kastelan made the first save. His defencemen failed to clear the puck on the 2 attempts they had leaving him high and dry.
Cole Bieksa makes it a 2-0 game at 4:46 of the first period with his third goal of the season. The assists on the goal went to Luca Pura and Tommy Karmaris.– Again a rebound goal where the Bulldogs had chances to clear the puck and instead let the Vipers shoot more on Kastelan. Now its 2-0.
Ryul Kwan gets the Bulldogs on the board with his 4th goal of the season at 10:06 of the first period unassisted.– While the Bulldogs weren’t clearing rebounds, the Vipers took it a step further and just decided to hand the puck right to the Bulldogs players. Beauty pass by the Vipers player to the stick of Ryul Kwan. Next to putting the puck in the net himself one of the biggest bone head plays of the year.
Denis Kuzmenkov tied the game up for the Bulldogs at 11:55 of the first period. The assists on the goal went to Antoine Gauthier and John Crawford. Kuzmenkov sped down the side of the rink and snipped a goal on what appeared to be an impossible angle to tie the game with a beautiful goal.
Shots on goal in the first period were 15-13 for the Vipers
Ryan Fairbarin gave the Vipers the lead at 4:11 of the second period with his fourth goal of the season. The assists on the goal went to Ingersoll, Ontario native Will Johnson and Australina Jed Lake.– Have to give credit where credit is due that was a beautiful goal from Fairbairn to tie the game.
Da Sol Kim tied the game back up for the Bulldogs at 12:36 of the second period. The assists on the goal went to Carter Matthews and Luke Walkauskas.
Shots on goal in the second period were 11-7 for the Bulldogs
Dean Toskos gets the game winner for the Bulldogs at 16:50 of the third period. The assist on the goal went to Nicholas DiPaolo.– DiPaolo who you could tell is still not 100% after coming back from an injury picked it up where it counted and sped down the ice spotting Toskos and setting up the game winner with just a little over 3 minutes left in the game.
Shots on goal in the third period were 7-3 for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs outshot the Vipers 31-25 in the game.
Ivan Kastelan stopped 22 of the 25 shots that he faced for the win for the Bulldogs, For the Vipers Samuel DiBlasi stopped 27 of the 31 shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Nicholas DiPaolo 2) Ivan Kastelan 3) Ryan Fairbairn
Attendance in Blackfalds was 784
Bulldogs next game is Friday October 30th when they travel to Cranbrook to play the Bucks.
