Back at home and Cale Elder back from injury, the Lloydminster Bobcats fought all night on Friday and came away with an upset victory over the Fort McMurray Oil Barons to split the six game season series.
Behind 40 saves from the netminder, who was playing in his first game since December 15, and five different goal scores, the Bobcats came from behind to defeat The MOB 5-3.
Having not played in over a month, Elder did not have much time to get his feet wet on Friday.
Fort McMurray opened the game with 19 first period shots, none of which got past the Bobcat’s rookie goalie out of Saskatoon, SK.
With the game scoreless after one, the goals came quick in the second.
Hunter Lamb got the party started for Lloydminster with a power-play goal just over five minutes into the middle period, however, The MOB responded with a pair of goals not quite three minutes apart to go up 2-1.
Then it was the Bobcats turn to respond.
Twenty-eight seconds after the Oil Barons took their first lead of the contest, Ty Mosimann let a wrist-shot fly from the middle of the circle and got it past MOB goalie Chris Curr.
With the score tied 2-2, the Oil Barons restored their lead on a power-play with a goal from Peter Tomaras.
Trailing 3-2 after two periods, that set the stage for one of the best periods from the Cats this season.
Just 19 seconds into the final frame Logan Bromhead sniped a shot over the shoulder of Curr to tie the game.
Then two and a half minutes later, Breydon Berthold laid a massive check on Jaedon Leslie to free the puck in the offensive zone, Mosimann then fed it to Jordan Borysiuk who ripped a one-timer from the high slot past Curr to give Lloydminster a 4-3 advantage.
With just over five minutes left in the game, Berthold got a goal of his own.
Bromhead one-timed a shot that Berthold deflected in close and straight into the back of the net to round out the scoring.
The MOB went on to out-shoot the Cats 43-33 in the game, but Elder stood tall all night.
With the man-advantage the Bobcats went 1 for 5, while the Oil Barons finished 1 for 3.
Next up for the Cats will be a Wednesday night home game when they host the Camrose Kodiaks for the one and only time this season. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 from the Centennial Civic Centre.
