The Sherwood Park Crusaders have been eliminated by the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in five games.
Game three at the Randy Rosen Rink was a nail biter, as a four goal first period put the Cru down 4-0 heading into the second. Bruce MacGregor, Wyatt Marlow, and Evan Arnold helped Sherwood Park claw their way to within one, but Chris Kobelka tried to put things out of reach just over 90 seconds into the third period on a lucky bounce. Jaron Desoyers added one in his playoff debut, but the team would ultimately fall short heading into game 4.
The following night, a stifling effort by the Oil Barons, holding the home side to just five shots in the third period as Fort McMurray walked away with a shutout for the second time in the series. Gus Bylin made 32 stops in the loss, and the Cru looked ahead to Sunday at Centerfire Place, where they potentially face elimination.
A back and forth affair, as three goals in just over two minutes left the first period tied 2-2. Mitchell Joss netted his first of the postseason 15 seconds into the middle frame, and Ryan Arnold did the same to extend the lead to two. Just a couple minutes later, Ryder Matter cut the lead in half on the powerplay and Max McCoy tied things at for heading into the final period. Just 12 shots between the two teams, five for the Crusaders, but Danny Ciccarello took a Mob lead and Dylan Clark iced the game on an empty net with eight seconds remaining.
Sherwood Park gets back to work, looking forward to next season and hoping to make a bigger splash.