FINAL SCORE: Sherwood Park Crusaders 0 Whitecourt Wolverines 6

Not a great night for the Crusaders after last night’s big win over the same opponent. The fact that the team has played three games in four nights was fairly obvious to see on the ice tonight.

The first period started out extremely slow for both teams after both of them combined for only one shot after five minutes.  Darcy Zaharicuk attempted to give his team a spark by dropping the gloves with a Wolverine, unfortunately, this didn’t pan out well for the Crusaders. The fight led to a Wolverines powerplay where I would say the turning point began. Whitecourt just got more comfortable offensively then went on to score three goals in the period.

As for the rest of the game, Whitecourt shut down the Crusaders on every unit by playing a physical game, at every opportunity, they made sure they gave them a shove or a hit. For a team that was already tired, those small physical plays affected the boys. The Crusaders had a few chances on the power play but still continued to come out of it with no results.

Tonight was just not the night for the Crusaders, hopefully, a few days rest will help them come out stronger for their next game.

THE UPS

• Chase Torontow had himself a nice game, he had his head in the game tonight playing a nice physical game and won a good about of puck battles.
• A decent start to the second period after struggling in the first.
• Merritt Oszytko put the Wolverines under a lot of pressure on a Crusaders penalty kill. This eventually resulted in the Whitecourt player icing the puck. Oszytko, overall, played a real solid game.
• Despite allowing six goals, both Klassen and Morrisey had alright games tonight. I wouldn’t put any of the goals allowed on them

THE DOWNS

• The offense really struggled to get anything going tonight. Whitecourt played a physical came which essentially shut down the Crusaders offense.
• Both special teams units weren’t on their game tonight. The penalty kill was okay but they just spent to much time on the ice. This team needs to learn not to take to many penalties.
• The Cru didn’t test the Wolverines netminder much. They kept throwing pucks towards the net yet nobody wanted to screen or do any of the little things to make it tough for him.
• I’ve said it a couple of times, the team was tired but that doesn’t really give you a reason not to defend your goalie. I felt like there were a few times where the Wolverines gave the Cru goalie one too many jabs and nothing was done about it. Let them know that isn’t allowed.
• Undisciplined again.
• The team only had 19 shots altogether.

THE TURNING POINT

As I said a little earlier, once the Wolverines got the powerplay, after Darcy Zarharichuk’s fight, they took control of the game. They could more than likely see that the Crusaders were exhausted and they took advantage of that. The better teams are going to do that to you.

UP NEXT

Next Wednesday the Cru take on the last placed team in the north the Lloydminster Bobcats. Puck drop is at 7 pm right here at the Sherwood Park Arena.