The Sherwood Park Crusaders sent their the fan bus home happy tonight with a 6-2 victory over the Whitecourt Wolverines.
It was not the prettiest of starts for the Crusaders, who found themselves down 2-0 after eight minutes of play with goals coming from Easton Haygarth and Ben Evanish. However, a series of penalties against the Wolverines put the Crusaders on a five-on-three powerplay and gave them a chance to get back in the game. That opportunity was one that the Wolverines would go onto regret after Will Zapernick’s wrist shot made it through the crowd the pull Sherwood Park within one. The travelling Crusaders gained plenty of momentum from that goal, putting continuous pressure on the Wolverines defensively. That pressure would result in a goal for Cody Laskosky against his former team to tie the game up at 2-2.
In the second, the Crusaders continue to roll and put the Wolverines on the back foot for the majority of the frame. Right around the midway point of the period, newcomer Nick Bowman managed to squeeze the puck by Wolverines netminder Tye Morin for his first in a Crusaders uniform. Shortly after, Carter Savoie came streaking out of the penalty box onto a two-on-one opportunity with Brett Wieschorster. Savoie’s shot would richotted in to give his team a two-goal cushion heading into the final intermission. It was also at that point that the Wolverines replaced Morin between the pipes with rookie netminder Ben Rishaug.
Now in the final period, the scoring went very similarly to the second with the Crusaders scoring two goals. The first came off the faceoff to the right of Rishaug in the Wolverines goal. Bowman won the draw and fired it back to Garrett Clegg who released a wicked wrist shot over the shoulder of the Wolverines rookie netminder to make it 5-2 Crusaders. The game would get a little chippy between the goals with five players each receiving roughing minors. The final score of the game would come from Laskosky once again for his eighth of the season.
This victory for the Crusaders keeps them in second place in the Viterra North Division with 42 points. Matt Berlin made 19 of 21 saves on the night to pick up his team-leading 13th win of the season.
Next up for the Crusaders is a trip to the Revolution Arena for a date against the Grande Prairie Storm.