After a weekend of getting thrashed 11-1 by Brooks and losing to Olds, the Dragons showed up looking like a hockey team Tuesday night. I am pretty sure that the last time anyone had a weekend of Thrashing so bad who was from Drumheller was in the showers at the Drumheller Institution. Blackfalds however is coming off a 4 point weekend in north west Alberta. With wins over Grande Prairie and Whitecourt. The Bulldogs last faced the Dragons on the Teddy Bear Toss game in Blackfalds December 4th and they won 5-1. The previous 2 meetings the Bulldogs lost both games in Drumheller in November and October.
Kurt Gurkan opened up the scoring for the Bulldogs just 1:41 into the game. Redirecting a Brett Meerman pass, secondary assist on the goal goes to Evan Mitchell. Thats Gurkan’s third of the season. The 18 year old from Darien, Connecticut is committed to Yale University. You know who went to Yale? The Clinton’s.🙄But on the bright side great actors like Ron Livingston, Stacy Keach, and none other than the legend who plays Reg Dunlop the late Paul Newman are also Yale Alumni.👍
Former Medicine Hat Tiger Noah Danielson replied for the Dragons with a nice shot upstairs knocking the water bottle off the net and tying the game at 1. Later on again 20 year old Danielson got his second of the night just over a minute into the second period.
Kurt Gurkan scored his second of the night from the slot at 5:06 of the second period.
In the third period Jacob Dennis took a double minor for high sticking and the bulldogs killed it off. Was it a questionable call? I hate saying it with it being the time in the game but it was high sticking. High Sticking is the action where a player carries the stick above the normal height of the opponent’s shoulders and makes contact with the opponent. “A player must be accountable for being in control of their stick at all times.” The thing is though if he is going to get a 4 the other guy should of been hurt out of the game or at least drawn blood. The Bulldogs killed both penalties off. The Bulldogs are 81% on the penalty kill making them exactly on the league average.
30 seconds into overtime Hennessey passed the puck up to Tyler Wallace who was on a 2 on 1 with Meerman. Wallace shot it and scored. Dragons goalie Garrett Fuller seemed to be watching Meerman the whole time on the 2 on one. I had an extra ticket if Fuller wanted to spectate.
Other Notes
Tanner Willick and Kasey Hiemstra were both out of the line up again tonight.
This game was the best game I have seen Alexy Trischuk play this season. I have never seen a guy come so close on chances and have others go offsides, get a stupid penalty, ect. Guy is due for a big goal certainly deserves it.
I just noticed that Gurkan is from Darien, Connecticut (Or his hometown is listed as there). Thats by Stamford. Stamford Connecticut. Not that I watch the following garbage but when I was in the hospital a while back for a month all I got was a few shows during the day. Sadly the TV did go to Maury and Jerry. It made me think that no matter how bad I had it sitting in the hospital, there are people out there who are more pathetic than me. And they are on the following shows. They always say at the end “If your from the Stamford, Connecticut area and want to catch a show”. Sad that when I think of Connecticut that is the first thing I think of. I better not say the first thing that pops in the head when I think of New Jersey🤔🤪Someone else on the teams hometown may actually be closer to the studio too.
Attendance 605. Which was the second biggest crowd of the year for a weekday game. (The largest was the Nov 10th against Camrose)
Bulldogs are on the road again this weekend with Brooks on Friday night and Calgary on Saturday.
The Blackfalds Bulldogs are putting in their bid to host the Centennial Cup. Which would be awesome to have in the city. Hopefully sooner than later as I would love to see the AJHL drop out of the CJAHL all together. If the CJAHL has its way the players will have to all wear full body armor, there will be no hitting, the roster will have to have a certain number of what ever. CJAHL is a bad road and its not one most people will like in the future.