The Sherwood Park Crusaders continue to hold the Lloydminster Bobcats number so far this season.
Meeting for the third time during the 2017-18 campaign Friday night at the Sherwood Park Arena, the Cru cruised to their third win against the Cats, 6-2.
After falling in a hard fought game last night in Fort McMurray, the Bobcats suffered their second straight loss on Friday.
Lloydminster came out of the gate fast, but was unable to get anything by Crusaders goalie Joshua Dechaine.
The Bobcats nearly broke the deadlock when Daniel Hilsendager fired a point shot, but it went off the cross bar and deflected out of play.
Shortly after that, the Crusaders came back the other way also hitting the post, however, the puck then bounced off a body in-front and past Nick Sanders. Deklan Whilllans was awarded the goal.
Then with exactly one minute remaining in the opening frame, Erik Miller one-timed a power-play goal by Sanders to put Sherwood up 2-0 after one period of play.
In the second, the Bobcats were able to trim the lead in half.
Killing off a double minor to Mike MacLean, Zach Kaiser read a Crusader’s pass, intercepted the puck and beat Dechaine high glove side on a breakaway. It was Kaiser’s 11th goal of the season and 4th short-handed marker.
Unfortunately for the Cats, with just under six minutes to go in the period Ryan Cox restored the goal advantage to make it 3-1 after two.
In the final frame, the Crusaders began to pull away.
Two goals from Cox and one from Arjun Atwal extended the lead to 6-1, before Andrew Liwiski potted his 2nd goal this season late in the third to round out the scoring.
The Bobcats went on to out-shoot the Crusaders 36-31 in the loss.
Sherwood Park went 2 for 5 on the power-play, while the Cats finished 0 for 3.
Lloydminster will have the day off on Saturday before hosting the Drumheller Dragons Sunday afternoon at the Civic Centre. Puck Drop is at 2:30.