The Crusaders had two games over the weekend, facing the Okotoks Oilers on Friday and the Spruce Grove Saints on Saturday.
Sherwood Park would start the weekend off right with a 7-3 win over the Oilers on Friday. However, they would drop Saturday’s contest 2-1 to the Saints.
Friday’s game would see the Cru go up early as Erik Kald would bury his first of the season, not even a full minute into the game, to give an early 1-0 lead for Sherwood Park. Just nineteen seconds later, Quincy Supprien would put one past Oilers’ netminder Eric Young on the breakaway to give the Crusaders a commanding 2-0 lead just 1:16 into the game. Then, to cap off a dominant opening minutes of the game, Erik Kald would score his second of the period on the Powerplay to give the Cru a 3-0 lead just under three minutes into the first frame.
The game’s next goal would land on the stick of captain Stevie Grumley as he would snipe one past Eric Young on the power play to give the Crusaders a dominant 4-0 lead just under seven minutes into the middle frame. The Oilers would eventually get on the board just past the halfway point of the second as Michael Mikan would score his fifth of the season to cut the Crusaders’ lead down to three, 4-1. The Oilers would then get back-to-back goals when Josh Wiebe would get one past Crusaders goalie Jack Scali to make it a two-goal game, 4-2. However, the Crusaders would snuff out any chance of a second-period comeback as Max Ly would tap in his fifth of the season to regain the Crusaders’ three-goal lead with just four minutes left in the middle frame.
Coming into the third, the Crusaders would get their sixth goal of the game as Braeden O’Keefe would bury one on the powerplay to give Sherwood Park the 6-2 lead. Then just six minutes later, assistant captain Cooper Sharp would get his first of the season to put the Crusaders up a commanding 7-2 lead with just under ten minutes left in the game. Oilers would end up getting one more as Markus Jakobsen would get his second of the season to make it a final score of 7-3.
The Crusaders were looking to make it a three-game winning streak coming into Saturday’s matchup against the Saints. Spruce Grove would open the scoring, however, as Army-commit Max Holland would get his first goal of the season on the man-advantage to put the Saints up 1-0, sixteen minutes into the first period.
There would be no further goals to report until the third period when Crusaders’ forward Braeden O’Keefe would tap in a pretty pass from Joseph Sinclair to tie the game up at one a piece with just thirteen minutes left in the game. And with just four and a half minutes left in the game Saints would re-take their lead as Brandon Funk would score his second game-winning goal of the season to give the Saints the eventual 2-1 win.
Crusaders look to shake off Saturday’s loss as they prepare for a two-game home-stand next weekend, as they take on the Cranbrook Bucks on Friday, November 7th, and then the 12-2 Trail Smoke Eaters on Saturday, the 8th.
