The Blackfalds Bulldogs picked up a 6-4 home win over the Trail Smoke Eaters on Friday night at the Eagle Builders Centre, and it was the kind of game that could have gotten out of hand early if it wasn’t for Chayse Johnson. The Bulldogs came out flying and were all over the Smokies in the first period—Johnson was making highlight-reel saves left and right and easily kept Blackfalds from putting up at least a few more goals before the intermission. Trail battled back and made it interesting later on, but Blackfalds still got the two points. That moves the Bulldogs to 9-7-0-0 and 18 points, which is good for second place in the Interior East behind Brooks. Trail, meanwhile, is still stuck near the bottom of the Interior West after the loss.
Dysen Drake makes it a 1-0 game for the Smoke Eaters at 4:21 of the first period tipping in a shot when he was allowed to camp out infront of the net and completly screen the goalie. The assists on the goal went to Aleksandr Andriyashev and Trent Gates.
Dysen Drake sccored his second goal of the game and 11th of the season short handed after the Smoke Eaters won the faceoff down in the Bulldogs end and just casually pushed the puck ahead and Drake had a 2 on 1 with Colton Whifield and they made it a 2-0 game.
Dean Toskos got the Bulldogs on the board at 14:49 of the first period with his fifth goal of the season after recieving a pass from Denis Kuzmenkov in close to the net. The other assist on the goal went to Carter Matthews.
At 15:47 of the first period Da Sol Kim made a nice spin delay and then found Matthew Croxall sneaking into the slot fed him the puck making it a 2-2 game. The goal was Croxall’s 8th of the season.
Shots on goal in the first period were 18-10 for the Bulldogs
Nicholas DiPaolo gave the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead flying down the right side of the ice beating the defender and then lifting it up on Johnson at 3:20 of the second period. The assists on the goal went to Kohyn Pipke and Dean Toskos.
Dysen Drake gets his hat trick goal at 14:22 of the second period when again he is let alone to sit infront of the net and bang away and no one touches him. The assists on the goal went to Brayden Rotach and Jaden Sikura.
Matthew Croxall blasts his second goal of the game from the slot while on the Power Play at 15:47 of the second period. The assists on the goal went to Da Sol Kim and Gavin Karl.
Matthew Croxall gets his hat trick goal at 17:30 of the second period blasted the puck from the slot again this time lower down. The assists on the goal went to Da Sol Kim and Ryul Kwan.
Shots on goal in the second period were 12-10 for Trail
Nicholas DiPaolo scored his second goal of the night and 5th of the season on the Power Play at 8:45 of the third period going topshelf breaking the water bottle to make it a 6-3 game for the Bulldogs. The assists on the goal went to Ryul Kwan and Gavin Karl.
Daniel Rassaga gets the Smokies a goal at 18:38 of the third period when the Bulldogs got lazy. The assist on the goal went to Maddox Gandha.
Shots on goal in the third period were 12-6 for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs outshot the Smoke Eaters 40-27 in the game.
Ivan Kastelan stopped 23 of the 27 shots he faced for the win for the Bulldogs. For the Smoke Eaters Chayce Johnson stopped 34 of the 40 shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Matthew Croxall 2) Nicholas DiPaolo 3) Dysen Drake
Attendance in Blackfalds was 477
Bulldogs next game is Sunday November 8th in Brooks against the Bandits
