Fresh off a week long B.C. road trip the Guys in Green welcomed the Brooks Bandits and the Vernon Vipers to start a three game home stand.
The Crusaders would split the weekend games losing 8-0 to the Brooks Bandits and getting a 3-2 win over the Vipers.
The Bandits would waste no time taking the lead on Friday’s matchup as Jack Rosensteel would bury his sixth of the season just five and a half minutes into the opening period. The Bandits would double-down on their lead just eight minutes later when Isaac Johnson would score short-handed to give the Bandits the 2-0 lead. Then with just under one minutes left in the period Dmitrijs Dilevka would bury a feed from Liam Fitzpatrick to give the bandits a strong 3-0 lead heading into the second.
The Bandits would end up carrying that offensive momentum into the second when Isaac Johnson would get his second of the game to make it a four goal lead for Brooks, 4-0. Just over the halfway point of the second Isaac Johnson would get his Hat-trick goal on the powerplay to make it 5-0 Bandits hockey.
Coming into the third Zachary Deleau would bury one past Crusader’s goalie Jack Scali just five minutes into the last period to give Brooks their sixth marker of the game. Just ten second after Brook’s sixth goal they would end up getting their seventh as Frantisek Albrecht would get his first of the season to put the Bandits up 7-0. As the old saying goes “when it rains it pours”, this would prove true for the Crusaders as Brooks Forward Alexei Zhukov would tip-in his fourth of the season to give the Bandits the 8-0 win. Friday’s loss at home would not only mark the Crusader’s fifth straight loss of the season, but also mark the first time since November 20th 2022, that Sherwood Park would get shut-out at home.
The Crusaders however came into Saturday’s game looking to exercise some demons against the Vernon Vipers. Crusader’s forward Rockston Ror-Chow would get his first career BCHL goal just eight minutes into the game to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead.
The Vipers would waste no time in the second to tie it up as Koji Gibson would rifle a one-time shot in the slot to make it a 1-1 game. The Crusaders would eventually re-take the lead in the second when Quincy Supprien would score his first powerplay goal of the year to put the Crusaders up 2-1.
Vernon would tie things up ten minutes into the final period as Vipers Defenseman Aaron Zulinick would score from the point to make it 2-2 going into the final ten minutes of the game. The Crusader’s Joseph Sinclair would end up being the hero for Sherwood park as he would tap in a point shot from captain Stevie Grumley for his seventh of the year to give the Crusaders 3-2 win snapping the five game losing streak.
The Crusaders look to carry this momentum into the following weekend where they play their final game of the home stand against the Okotoks Oilers on Friday, October 31st, before heading to Spruce on Saturday, November the 1st to take on the Saints.
