A shorthanded and illness-ravaged Bulldogs team — which likely contributed to their poor performance the night before as well — fell 4-1 to the Spruce Grove Saints on Saturday night in Spruce Grove. The Saints were undoubtedly hungry for a win after dropping a frustrating 2-1 decision the previous night to the last-place Surrey Eagles. In that game, Spruce Grove badly outshot Surrey 48-27 but ran into a red-hot goaltender and came away empty. The Bulldogs were confirmed to be without forwards Krisjanis Sarts and Nikita Meshcheryakov due to illness, there may be others ill also.
Shots on goal in the scoreless first period were 8-5 for the Saints
20 year old former Owen Sound Attack forward Declan Waddick made it a 1-0 game for the Saints with his 5th goal of the season at 9:42 of the second period with the assists on the goal going to newcomer Junior Podein the son of former NHLer Shjon Podein and Austrian Felix Haibock.
Lakeshore, Ontario native Declan Waddick made it a 2-0 game for the Saints on the Power Play at 15:35 of the second period. The assists on the goal went to Max Holland and Felix Haibock.
Ben Buckley made it a 3-0 game for the Saints at 19:10 of the second period with the assists on the goal going to Kenyon McIsaac and Carson Lloyd.
Shots on goal in the second period were 10-7 for the Saints.
Felix Haibock who leaves to play with Austria soon at the Division 1 World Juniors made it a 4-0 game at 3:48 of the third period with the assist going to Brandon Funk and Brett Barnes.
Luke Dahlen got the Bulldogs on the board at 13:42 of the third period on the Power Play with his 18th goal of the season. The assists on the goal went to Thomas Neu and Nikita Ivashchenko.
Shots on goal in the third period were 12-9 for the Saints. The Saints outshot the Bulldogs 30-21 in the game.
Ryan DeKok made 20 saves on the 21 shots that he faced for the win for the Saints. Oliver Kiraly saved 26 of the 30 shots that he faced in the game for the Bulldogs.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Felix Haibock 2) Declan Waddick 3) Ben Buckley
Attendance in Spruce Grove was 1159
Bulldogs next game is Saturday November 6th in Blackfalds against the Sherwood Park Crusaders.
