Bobcats travel to Sherwood Park for nail biter of a game!
The Lloydminster Bobcats headed down the road to take on the Sherwood Park Crusaders for the 5th consecutive time in the month of October as part of the AJHL Development Season series number one. The first four contests had been decided by one goal and Friday nights tilt was no different.
In what has been a very heated series to date saw a very quiet first twenty minutes as there were no penalties, no goals, just back and forth action which saw the shot clock sit at 9 ? 7; Bobcats netminder Axel Rosenlund who went on to make 27 saves in the evening.
The second period saw the Cats? get on the board first as neutral zone play saw a puck popped free and sent Ethan Aucoin in on an odd man attack to score short side, Chad MacLean and Brendan Morrow had assists on the goal. Sherwood Park would get on the board when Matt Savoie intercepted a pass in the Cats? defensive end to even things up, Ty Ettinger would score later in the period to put the Crusaders up 2-1 going into the third.
The Cats? penalty was tested early in the third period as the Crusaders had just under 90 seconds of a 5 on 3, a few blocked shots and big stops would see it be killed off. Play opened up as a great defensive play by Sam Carper and Tegan Skehar would send the Bobcats in on another odd man attack which would see the Assistant Captainsend a shot from the far side and beat Carson Cherepak to even things up at 2, Carper would have the assist. Just over two minutes later the Crusaders Mueller would find a loose puck in front of the net to score, eventually being the winning goal.
The Bobcats outshot the Crusaders in the third frame 11-4 and had chances at the end but could not beat Cherepak. Bobcats GM and Head Coach had these post game thoughts on the game, ?it was by far the quietest game of the series so far. Our penalty kill was strong again tonight and I think it showed on the 5 on 3 they had for just under a minute and a half. We will look to put more pucks to their net early. We had 14 missed shot opportunities in the first half of the game, those need to be on the net for a chance to be in it.?
The Bobcats will finish off the series with Sherwood Park tonight at the Civic Centre and is sold out but can be watched on MyHockeyTV. More information will be out in the coming week for the Bobcats next game. Make sure to check out our social media or stop in at the office to purchase all of your Bobcats merchandise!