SHERWOOD PARK, AB – The Sherwood Park Crusaders got a little revenge tonight against the Drayton Valley Thunder who had previously defeated the Crusaders 5-1 in the teams home opener. Tonight, the Crusaders dominated Drayton Valley walking away with an 8-0 victory.
The goals came early when Erik Miller scored goals three and four on the year 41 second apart from one and other. Jacob Franczak and Brandon Wallis both picked up assists. Sherwood Park scored once more in the first when Tanner Fincaryk danced through the Thunder defence for his first career AJHL goal.
Sherwood Park’s dominance continued into the second where it took them only 1:22 get their fourth when Garrett Clegg scored on the powerplay. Shortly after, from a sharp angle rookie forward Carter Savoie somehow found an opening on the Rory Dumelie’s near post to make it 5-0. Next up was Brandon Wallis. Wallis had been kept goalless up until tonight when he picked up the loose puck in front of the Thunder goal making it 6-0 Crusaders after two periods of play.
In the third period, Cameron Aucoin scored the Crusaders third powerplay goal of the night and his second of the season. A nice pass by Brennan McDonnell down low to Aucoin was finished off by the Crusaders rookie for his second goal in as many games. Finally, the goalscoring on the night was wrapped up by Arjun Atwal for his sixth of the year.
On the night, the travelling Crusaders were perfect on the powerplay going three for three. They surrender three powerplay opportunities to the Thunder but were able to kill them all off.
Matt Berlin was perfect for the Crusaders tonight stopping all 27 shots he faced for his first shutout of the year. He now has a 3-0-1 record along with a 1.74 GAA and a 0.946 SV%. Arjun Atwal extended his point scoring to six games and Michael Benning extended his to four.
Next up for the Crusaders is a home game against the Calgary Canucks on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available right here.