It’s only November, yet the Sherwood Park Crusaders match up against Fort McMurray this weekend can potentially sway what direction Tim Fragle’s squad will go headed towards the playoffs. Sherwood Park who have lost 4 in a row, look to get out of a scoring funk in the first of two games in Northern Alberta on Friday night.
The Cru have scored only 3 goals in the last 3 games, even though almost outshooting their opponent 2 to 1 in the last 2 outings, including 42 to 25 in Sunday’s 2-1 shootout loss to Okotoks.
“We believe the offense has to start to come when we are generating over 40 shots a game.” Fragle said of his team picking up the single point in Sunday’s game.
To add insult to injury, leading scorer, Garth Wallin did not play Sunday. Fragle praised his younger forwards stepping up in Wallin’s absence, including Ryan Kruper, who scored the Cru’s only goal, and Nick Jones.
Wallin will return to the lineup Friday night.
“Goal scoring habits and special teams will be the focus this week [in practice].” Fragle added.
Although the lack of scoring Fragle feels staying the course will eventually turn in his teams favor.
“Game plan doesn’t change as we believe our plan is working but this is an extremely important road trip for us to see where our team is going moving forward. Persistence is want we want to see from our team this weekend.”
The Cru will faceoff against the MOB Friday and Saturday night at 8pm at the Casman Center. The two teams previously met on September 23rd in Sherwood Park with the Cru edging out a 3-2 win on home ice.