A third period goal was not enough for the Lloydminster Bobcats Wednesday night at the Civic Centre when they hosted the Drayton Valley Thunder for the final time this season.
A third period goal from Rylan Nivon would be the only goal of the evening for the Cats as they dropped a 4-1 decision.
It did not take the Thunder very long to get on the board.
Just 21 seconds into the game,Tanner Hopps found a loose puck and put it past Bobcat’s goalie Eric Cook, who was making his second career Bobcat’s start.
Drayton Valley continued to pressure the Cats for the first half of the opening frame, until the Bobcats began to push back after the media timeout.
Despite some close calls in both ends, the score remained 1-0 after one period of play.
The score appeared that it may stay that way throughout the second period as well but the Thunder changed that quite quickly in a 32 second span.
With just under five minutes to play in the frame, the Thunder scored twice in 32 seconds with goals from Ben Stollery and Kabe Bleay.
Trailing by three to start the third, the Cats got themselves on the board.
Throwing a puck towards the goal from the corner, Rylan Nivon had his pass attempt defect off of a Drayton Valley defender and past Luke Lush to trim the lead to 3-1. The goal, credited to Nivon was his 10th of the season.
Unfortunately, that was as close as Lloydminster would get as the Thunder tacked on a power-play goal in the final seconds of the contest to round out the scoring.
Drayton Valley outshot the Cats 45-21.
With the man-advantage Lloydminster finished 0 for 4 while the Thunder finished 1 for 4.
Next up for the Cats will be a pair of home games this weekend. They’ll play host to the Whitecourt Wolverines on Friday and the Calgary Mustangs on Saturday.