Infront of 1178 fans, the Spruce Grove Saints defeated the Sherwood Park Crusaders in their 2022-2023 home opener by a final score of 5-3!
Early into the first period, Evan Arnold scored to put the Crusaders up by one. Fifteen minutes later, Morgan Brady achieved a short-handed goal to tie the game up one. By the end of the first period, the Saints had fourteen shots on goal while the Crusaders had seven.
Period number two saw Jed Magarrell net one home early to put the Saints up by one. Just moments later, Hunter Brown added to the Saints lead, making it 3-1. The shots on goal after the second period were 35 for the Saints and 11 for the Crusaders
Two minutes into the third period, Brandon Spaulding scored to put the Saints up 4-1. Soon after Spaulding’s goal, Breck McKinley scored off of his own rebound to add to their lead. That would be the last Saints goal of the night; however, the same could not be said for the Crusaders who soon after scored on the powerplay (courtesy of Ryan Arnold) and then had Brendan Kuny score another one a minute later.
Reaching the end of the game, penalties were being thrown left and right – first there was some four-on-four action with Christenson and Mujcin in the box, and then with 45 seconds left in the game, the Saints went on a 5-on-3 powerplay which essentially drained the clock for the Crusaders and won the game for the Saints.
The Saints marched on to victory, defeated the Crusaders 5-3 and improving to a 1-1 record after the first weekend of the regular season.
The Saints are back at home this Friday night, as they host the Grande Prairie Storm. Get your tickets here à tickets.sprucegrovesaints.ca