The Lloydminster Bobcats beat the Grande Prairie Storm at home for the second night in a row on Saturday, scoring six straight goals before spotting the Storm three goals in the third to win 6-3.
Each player honoured their parents in a pre-game ceremony on the ice prior to puck drop as part of Parents Weekend. After the ceremony wrapped up it took little time for the Bobcats to pick up where they left off on Friday, as Patrick Geary deflected a Brock Weston point shot on the powerplay to open up the scoring for the Bobcats 11 minutes into the first frame. Cole Porter picked up the second assist on Geary’s goal then snagged his second point of the night four minutes later, scoring on a pretty deke off a pass from Austin McDonald. The Bobcats found the net again to make it 3-0 before the end of the first period thanks to Austin McDonald’s wraparound after a Brock Weston shot from the point ended up on McDonald's stick behind the net.
The second period had similar results for the home squad, who scored their fourth goal just two minutes into the frame as Austin McDonald set up a Taylor Mulder goal for his third point of the evening. Eric Therrien, who earned the second assist on Mulder’s goal, scored a nice 2 on 1 goal midway through the frame on a feed from Nolan Yaremchuk. River Beattie found the net once more for the Bobcats to make it 6-0 after two periods, with Austin Yaremchuk picking up the assist.
The Storm battled back into the game in the third period, scoring just 23 seconds in thanks to Ryan Baskerville from Simon Desrosiers. Tyson McCallum and Nathyn Mortlock would each score for the Storm as well, who found themselves back in the game trailing 6-3 with 13 minutes left in the game. Three goals is as close as the Storm would get though, as the Bobcats would shut down the energized Storm the rest of the way to win it 6-3. Sean Kuehn (5-1-0) stopped 28 of 31 shots to record his fifth win of the year, while the Grande Prairie goalies split time stopping 38 of 44 total Bobcat shots.
“Offensively we took over where we left off last night,” said coach VanHereweghe about his team’s performance in the first two frames, “I just think we have to get a little better at putting teams away and playing the same style of hockey that got us there.” Austin McDonald was awarded the home star for the second night in a row, picking up six points in two games over the weekend. “Austin has really stepped his game up in relation to the physical part of his game,” said VanHereweghe, “he’s creating a lot and it’s rubbed off on the team.”
With the win, the Bobcats are now on a seven game point streak and have won their last five home games. A 12-7-1 record puts the Bobcats in fourth place in the north division, trailing the third place Whitecourt Wolverines by only a single point.
The Bobcats will host the rival Bonnyville Pontiacs on Halloween Night on Thursday, October 31st. Fans wearing costumes will get in free, and the game will feature a ‘haunted dressing room’ for the second year in a row. Puck drop on Thursday is 7:30 PM.
