The Lloydminster Bobcats have won five games in a row.
Six different Bobcats found the back of the net Wednesday night in Drayton Valley as the Bobcats cruised past the Thunder 7-1, for their first five game winning streak since February 3rd, 2016.
It was also a night of firsts for the Cats, as both AP’s Ryan Leyen and Matthew Mohrbutter scored their first career Junior ‘A’ goals in the contest as well.
It all got rolling just over seven minutes into the opening frame. Having recorded at least a point in 18 of his last 21 games, Zach Kaiser extended that streak to 19 of his last 22 when a snapped a wrist shot past Thunder goalie Rory Dumelie.
Lloydminster used Kaiser’s goal to hold a 1-0 lead after the first, which they would quickly widen in the second.
Just 38 seconds into the middle frame Connor Odelein fed Shawn Harke a pass out in front of the net, and the former Lethbridge Hurricane made no mistake extending the lead to 2-0.
Then only 14 seconds later, Kaiser and Tucker Scantlebury broke in on a 2-on-1. Kaiser passed the puck to Scantlebury who beat Dumelie and all of the sudden he Cats lead was 3-0.
With 3:07 left to play in the second period, Leyen found the puck on his stick all by himself in the slot. The AP, who has three goals this year with the Lloydminster Midget ‘AAA’ Bobcats wired a shot into the back of the net, brining an end to Dumelie’s night.
In the third, it was Kaiser finding the back of the net again, this time on the power-play, giving the Cats a 5-0 advantage.
Not quite two minutes later, Chase Stephenson found a loose puck off an offensive zone face-off and beat Daniel Allin short-side for his second goal of the season.
With 4:57 to go in the third, the Thunder put an end to Pierce Diamond’s shut-out bid. Trevor Ayre put home a bouncing puck on the mad-advantage, trimming the Lloydminster lead to 6-1.
The Cats would round out the scoring with six seconds left in the game, when Mohrbutter deflected home an Andrew Liwiski point-shot for his first career Junior ‘A’ goal.
Diamond made 30 saves on 31 shots for the Cats, while Drayton’s two goalies combined to stop 30 of 37 shots.
The Bobcats finished the game 1 for 11 on the power-play, and the Thunder went 1 for 5.
Lloydminster will now look to extend their season long winning streak to six games on Friday night when they host the Brooks Bandits.