There’s no place like home, especially after winning 4 games in a row. Tim Fragle’s group comes into Friday’s game against the Calgary Mustangs ranked 20th among CJHL teams, and can extend the 2nd longest current winning streak in the league to 5 games. The Mustangs, who lost their 2nd in a row Tuesday night (3-2 Brooks), come in to Friday boasting the leagues best offence with 41 goals through 10 games. Led by Damien Kulynych, Matt Heseltine and Alaska-Fairbanks commit Chase McMurphy, the trio has combined for 49% of the Mustangs offence this season. Containing those 3 along with Blair Wentworth, who has chipped in with 7 goals as well this year, will be key.
The Crusaders will look to take advantage of an underperforming Penalty Kill. Calgary is 15th among 16 teams with a 75.8% kill percentage and has allowed the 2nd most Power Play goals with 15. Sherwood Park is in the middle of the pack when it comes to the man advantage at 18.9%. It is fair to say that the game could be decided by special teams. Even though the Mustangs have had their struggles on the PK, their PP has picked up the slack with 11 PP goals and a 20.4% execution rate.
Offensively for the Crusaders, Garth Wallin continues his impressive start and leads the team with 9 points. Wallin, coming off a 2 goal performance in last Saturday’s win against Camrose, heads into Friday’s contest with a 3 game point streak. Also on a bit of a hot streak is veteran Stefan Bazar who has 6 assists in the last 4 games, while new comer Sean MacTavish has 2 goals and 3 assists during the Crusaders winning streak.
Newly acquired Cody Bardock will make his Crusader home debut Friday night as well, the 19 year old has already made his presence in the Cru lineup picking up an assist in his Cru debut against Drumheller.
After Friday’s game the Crusaders are right back at it Saturday night as they welcome cross town rival the Spruce Grove Saints. The home stand includes games against Grand Prairie (Wed/10), Whitecourt (Fri/12), Drayton Valley (Wed/17), Olds (Sat/20) and the Calgary Canucks (Sun/21).
For more information or tickets please call the Crusaders office at 780-417-1175