The Crusaders didn’t have much travelling over the weekend as they welcomed the Cranbrook Bucks and the Trail Smoke Eaters for an all-B.C. showdown.
The Crusaders would get a dominant 7-1 win over the Cranbrook Bucks on Friday while dropping a close one in OT, 3-2 to the top-seeded Trail Smoke Eaters.
Friday’s matchup saw the Crusaders take little to no time to get the scoring started as captain Stevie Grumley would get his team-leading eighth of the season to put Sherwood Park up 1-0 just under four and a half minutes into the opening frame.
Much like the opening period, the Cru would waste no time getting back on the board in the second as the Colgate commit, Tommy Coccaro, would bury one past Buck’s goalie Richard Rafaj to double the Crusaders’ lead, 2-0, not even a full two minutes into the period. Just four minutes later, Quincey Supprien would get his eighth of the season on the breakaway to give the Crusaders a three-goal lead, 3-0. Then just before the halfway point of the game, Crusaders defenseman Erik Kald would ring one past Rafaj to give Kald his third goal as a Crusader and to cap off a dominant three-goal period for the Cru’, 4-0.
The Crusaders would continue their offensive dominance coming into the final frame as the Edmonton Native, Rockston Ror-Chow, would get his second goal of the season to put Sherwood Park up a commanding 5-0 lead three minutes into the third. The Bucks, however, would not go unanswered as Nathan Simm would get his first of the season on the power play to make it a 5-1 game, seven minutes into the last period. Then, to regain the Crusaders’ five-goal lead, Joseph Sinclair, off a great steal in the O-Zone, would score his eighth of the season as well, to give the Crusaders a 6-1 lead with just over five minutes left in the game. And just in case Sinclair’s goal wasn’t insurance enough, Captain Stevie Grumley would score to get his second career multi-goal game to give the Crusaders a dominant 7-1 win.
Saturday’s matchup for the Crusaders was the 12-3 Trail Smoke Eaters. The Crusaders would draw first blood, however, as Gabriel O’Brien would get his second of the season off a beautiful dish from the Russian rookie Gleb Semenko, to put the Crusaders up 1-0 just shy of the ten-minute mark of the period. Trail would respond before the end of the first when Cash Carter would cash in on his sixth of the season to tie the game up with less than three minutes left in the first.
The Game would remain tied 1-1 throughout the second and most of the third. The Deadlock would be broken with less than four minutes to go in the game when Smoke Eater’s forward Brayden Sinclair would bury off a centering feed to put Trail up late in the game. Then, when the game felt like it was over and all hope had been lost, with just 2.6 seconds left in the game, captain Stevie Grumley would find Erik Kald in front of the net for the defenseman’s second goal of the weekend, and the game-tying goal.
OT would end up being a pretty defensive one, as there was only a shot put on net by either team in the extra frame. The Game’s eventual winner would land on the stick of Cash Carter as he would ring one post-in to give the game to the Smoke Eaters 3-2.
Crusaders are looking to get back in the win column as they hit the road next weekend to take on the Bandits on Friday, Nov.15th, and then the Blackfalds Bulldogs on Saturday, the 16th.
