Spruce Grove Saints vs Lloydminster Bobcats Wednesday, December 4th, 2019
Written by: Tyler Campbell
It was a tough one all around at the Centennial Civic Centre on Wednesday evening. Yours truly was doing play by play for the first time on Hockey TV and the MixLR app, and the Bobcats ran into a Spruce Grove Saints team who while having a lot of key players out of the lineup, showed off their incredible depth as they downed the Bobcats by a score of 8-3.
It was a terrific start for the Bobcats as Ben Bygrove opened the scoring at 7:38 of the first period with his first goal in the AJHL. If anyone asks, it was a bullet of a one timer that went top corner?but in reality Bygrove was just looking to make a pass into the neutral zone that missed and rolled all the way down on Saints starter Maxence Duchesne who simply misplayed the puck and it was 1-0 Cats. Nolen Coventry then extended the lead to 2-0 just two minutes later as he ripped one past Duchesne on a 2 on 1 and things were looking great for the Cats just 9:38 in. Jordan Biro responded just 18 seconds later as he got a bit of an odd one to get the Saints on the board. Saints then tied it on the power play at 13:46 as Brayden Nicholetts had his centring pass find its way into the net, and it would remain 2-2 at the end of 20 minutes of play.
In the 2nd the Saints began to take over the game. Nicholetts would get his 2nd on the night at the 9:46 mark and he took a centring pass from Graham Gamache and made no mistake to make it 3-2. Nick Leyer scored a similar goal to make it 4-2 as it was Nicholetts this time creating the play for the Saints finding Leyer in the slot who wired it home. The Saints added another right before the end of the 2nd Tanner Klassen got a puck in the slot that had eyes as it trickled off the post and in past Bobcats netminder Garrett Larsen, and it would be a 5-2 lead for the Saints heading to the 3rd period.
The Bobcats effort level never wavered in this hockey game, but the emotion perhaps did after Nicholetts completed the hat trick at the 3:02 mark of the 3rd period to make it 6-2 Saints. Leyer and Gamache would add goals to make it 8-2 Saints, and then in the final minute Chad MacLean would get his team leading 11th goal on the season to make the final score Spruce Grove Saints 8, Lloydminster Bobcats 3.
After the game Bobcats head coach Nigel Dube was disappointed with the team?s execution in the final 40 minutes of the hockey game. ?We came out in the 2nd, and it was our one on one?s that cost us. You look at the 3rd, 4th and 5th goals against, they were one on one battles that we lost, and there?s no way to sugar-coat it. And it cost us tonight.? Not much down time for the Cats as they?re back at it again on Friday night against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons for their 3rd meeting in the last 4 games. ?We?re searching for consistency within a game. I wasn?t a big fan of our game on the weekend, so we?re going to have a short practice tomorrow and go over some video, but it has to come from in that room. We had a good month of November, and now we have to find a way to get that back.?
That game on Friday night vs the Fort McMurray Oil Barons will be in Onion Lake, puck drop at 7:30. A fan bus will be leaving the Civic Centre at 6:25PM on Friday, a ticket to the game and ride on the bus is $20, season ticket holders will get the combo for $15! Call the office today 780-871-0900 or email admin@lloydminsterbobcats.com. If you?re unable to make it up to Onion Lake for the game, unfortunately the game will not be shown on Hockey TV as we do not have the Hockey TV equipment available at the Onion Lake Memorial Communiplex. HOWEVER?Shane Tomayer will be back for the play by play call that evening on the MixLR app!