By: Terry Martin
The Saints and Thunder would play game one of a four game set tonight in Spruce Grove on a sunny Friday night. The Saints would look to make it two wins in a row, after their shootout win in Fort McMurray at the start of the month.
The Thunder would open the scoring three minutes into the game, as Dexton Mozell got behind the Saints defence and would score far side on Tyler Palmer. Jayden Davis would then find himself in a similar situation moments later to tie the game at one. The Saints would get the only two power play chances in the period, but the score would remain tied at one after 20 minutes. The Saints lead in shots at the end of the period 12-5.
Drayton Valley would also score first in the second period as Mason Marcellus would find himself on a partial break to give the lead to the Thunder once again. The Saints would consistently bring heavy pressure to the other end but couldn’t solve Eric Ward for the rest of the period. The Saints would still lead in shots after 40 minutes, 21-14.
The Saints would be the ones to break the tension in this period as Brophy Dunne would score his first goal as a Saint on the powerplay tying the game at two. Gault would get an assist on the goal to get a point on his 18th birthday. Sam Vincent would also score his first AJHL regular season goal to give Spruce Grove their first lead of the game on a breakaway with nine minutes left in the game. Brett Pfoh would eventually get the insurance marker on the power play with five minutes left, bumping the Saints lead up to 4-2. Dylan Price would score for the Thunder after a broken play and a few deflections to shorten the Saints lead to one with three minutes left in the game.
Ultimately, the Saints would win the game by a final score of 4-3, they would also lead in shots by a total of 28-27.
The Saints and Thunder will battle it out one more time this weekend in Drayton Valley at 4:00pm on Sunday afternoon. Saints fans can catch all the action on the Saints Radio Network (mixlr.com/sprucegrovesaints) and on HockeyTV.