Blackfalds Bulldogs Bonnyville Pontiacs Brooks Bandits Calgary Canucks Camrose Kodiaks Canmore Eagles Drayton Valley Thunder Drumheller Dragons Fort McMurray Oil Barons Grande Prairie Storm Lloydminster Bobcats Okotoks Oilers Olds Grizzlys Sherwood Park Crusaders Spruce Grove Saints Whitecourt Wolverines

Saints Thrash Bobcats 5-1

Saints Thrash Bobcats 5-1

By: Adam Kulak

The Saints would play their last home game before their big road trip coming up and it didn?t disappoint.  Max Duchesne was solid in net and the Saints put up 46 shots as they defeat the Lloydminster Bobcats by a final score of 5-1.  Basnett, Mitchell, Gamache and Popowich would all get on the scoresheet as the Saints improve to 18-5-0 on the regular season.

First Period

It wasn?t quite the offensive opening period like the Saints last meeting with Lloydminster, but it was still a solid period.  It wasn?t always the prettiest at times in the first, but the Saints won?t complain about a multi goal lead.  They would take the lead nice and early in this one as Cameron Chin would dish a cross seam pass over to Sam Popowich for the first goal of the game. 

Especially in the beginning of the period, the Saints had some trouble moving the puck in transition but that improved as the period went on.  They did a great job of limiting Lloydminster in chances as they held them to just 4 shots in the period.

The Saints second goal would come in the later half of the period.  Ryan Peckford would take the puck right to the net and feed it out front for Grahame Gamache to tuck it in on Josh Dias, extending the lead to two.  They finished the period with 16 shots as the opening period would end with the Saints holding a 2-0 lead.

Second Period

Things would get rocky in the second period, 8 minutes in the Saints would get called for a hit from behind and Lloydminster would get a 5-minute Powerplay.  They couldn?t get two to tie it but they did manage 1 on the man advantage as Chad MacLean would bring the Bobcats to within 1.

The Saints bounced back after that and they got back to playing the way they had been up until that point.  They would kill the rest of the penalty off and started to turn on the pressure once again in the offensive zone.  Good forechecking led to drawing a penalty and the Saints would capitalize on their own man advantage.

Cole Basnett would redirect the slot pass from Ryan Peckford to light the lamp just 8 seconds into the Powerplay.  After giving Lloydminster a major Powerplay, the Saints would regain the two-goal lead and that?s how the score would stand after 40 minutes.  The Saints lead the shot clock 25-9 and take a 3-1 lead into the final frame.

Third Period

The Saints would add two more goals in the third period to really put this game away.  You could tell they started to feel it after the Powerplay goal late in the second and it showed in the final 20 minutes.  8 minutes into the period, Gamache would get his second of the game off a feed from Tanner Klassen.

The Saints poured on the shots in the third period, not letting Lloydminster make any sort of push to get back in the game.  They put up 21 shots in the final period of this game, it was a bit sloppy to start of the contest, but the Saints got better as the game went on.  Cam Mitchell would add the final dagger with 3 minutes left to cap off the big 5-1 victory here at the Grant Fuhr Arena.