Wednesday’s Bralin Technology Recap
By Shane Tomayer
Wednesday night saw fans fight the cold to head down to the Civic Centre to see their hometown Bobcats face off against the Sherwood Park Crusaders for the sixth and final time this season. The home side has won 4 of the 5 match ups in 2021/22.
Prior to the game Nigel Dube noted that the biggest thing for the Bobcats was going to be playing a full 60 minutes, in their first home game of 2022. In their previous three games since the holiday break the Bobcats have managed to start each game well and have even won two of three but the coach was not content with their level of compete for a full game.
Wednesday evening neither team could say they really took control of the game off the hop, though the Bobcats would strike first with Matthew Swanson netting his 16th of the season. They would hold that lead for 9 minutes before the Crusaders would tie the score at 1 where the score would stay through the balance of the first period. The Crusaders would not look back from there. In the second the Cru would outscore the home side 3-1. In the third it was more of the same with the visitors outscoring the Bobcats 2-1 for a 6-3 final.
Brightest spot for the Bobcats was the play of Matthew Swanson who was responsible for all three goals. He also hit a cross bar and a post in a great individual game. Linemate Jayven Leslie made the most of it as well picking up a pair of assists on the Swanson tallies.
Game 40 of the season was also marked as the 150th AJHL regular season game of captain Chad MacLean. MacLean added an assist to his career numbers in the team’s loss Wednesday. Pregame MacLean was somewhat torn on the milestone. Previous generations of AJHL players would celebrate their 200th game, last years season that wasn’t robbed many athletes of the opportunity to reach the higher mark. Still MacLean went into the game proud of what he’s accomplished and his career to this point.
Early in the third period the Bobcats were dealt a blow when a shot from the top of the circles was deflected and hit star forward Mack Stewart. The Cats second leading scorer will be out indefinitely.
Next home action is currently scheduled for January 21 when they will host the Grande Prairie Storm. Their next 5 regularly scheduled games (home and away) were postponed Thursday due to league and provincial Covid-19 protocols.
Wednesday, January 12th HOME game has been POSTPONED!