The Sherwood Park Crusaders punched their ticket to the second round of playoffs with a 5-3 win in game six against the Bulldogs this past Sunday.
Coming into the game matchup the Crusaders were looking to put the series to bed as they welcomed Blackfalds for game six of the series. The Bulldogs however would come out flying in the opening five minutes as Nikita Meshcheryakov would capitalize on an early powerplay to put the Bulldogs up 1-0 three and a half minutes into the first period. The Cru, just four minutes later, would tie the game up on a powerplay of their own as Bode Sampair would rifle home a pass from captain Stevie Grumley to make it a 1-1 game. The Crusaders would then get their first lead of the game when Braeden O ‘Keefe would bury on a fortuitist bounce in the crease to put Sherwood Park up 2-1 ten minutes into the game.
For how hot both teams started the game, the game’s next goal would come seven minutes into the middle frame when Joey Melo would crash the net and find a loose puck in the crease to give him his first of the playoffs and re-tying the game 2-2. The just 90 seconds later the Bulldogs would re-gain the lead when former Crusader Matthew Croxall would bury a wrap-around goal to give the Bulldogs the 3-2 lead nearing the ten minute mark in the second period. The Crusaders would answer late in the period as Brant Romaniuk would find Nathan Kydd crashing to the net to give Sherwood Park’s “Black Ace” his first career junior A goal, tying the game 3-3.
Heading into the final period it would be the guys in green finding the back of the net first as Michael Mika n would also get his first career playoff goal as he would tap in a pass from Braeden O’Keefe to put the Cru’ up 4-3 four minutes into the final 20. The Crusaders would hold the lead for all of the third, the game would eventually get put away by an empty-net goal from Ryan White as the Providence commit would pick up his second of the post-season, giving the Crusaders the 5-3 win.
Sherwood Park prepares for a round two battle with the Brooks Bandits for the third straight year.
Playoff Schedule are as follows;
- Game 1 @ Brooks 7:00 P.M.- Apr. 17th
- Game 2 @ Brooks 7:00 P.M.- Apr. 18th
- Game 3 vs. Brooks 7:00 P.M.- Apr. 21st
- Game 4 Vs. Brooks 7:00 P.M.- Apr. 22nd
- Game 5 @ Brooks 7:00 P.M. *-Apr. 24th
- Game 6 Vs. Brooks 6:00 P.M. *-Apr. 26th
- Game 7 @ Brooks 7:00 P.M.*- Apr. 28th
All Road games will be streamed on FloHockey, tickets for home games can be found here.
