The Drumheller Dragons, after three weeks on the road, hosted the Fort McMurray Oil Barons Friday night at the Drumheller Memorial Arena. They didn’t stay home long though, heading back on the road to Calgary Saturday to face the Canucks for the second time in a week.
The Canucks stole the show Saturday, taking a 5-0 win over the Dragons.
Friday night was a repeat of the October 9 game in Fort McMurray, at least in regulation.
At 12:45 of the first period Matt Muzyka put the home team on the board but less than five minutes later, the Oil Barons’ Brett Edwards scored two back-to-back goals. Shortly after, the Dragons’ Levi Wunder scored his ninth of the season, unassisted, to tie the game at two each by the end of the first period.
With no scoring in the second period, Muzyka scored his second of the game to give the Dragons their second lead of the night 56 seconds into the third period. With less than five minutes left in the game, the Oil Barons’ Landon Welykholowa tied it once again to force an overtime period.
Just 21 seconds into the overtime period, newcomer Isaac Schacher scored for the Dragons to give the team their first win since facing the Grande Prairie Storm in the AJHL Showcase on October 3.
“Lets call it spade to spade, we’ve been playing some awful hockey. This really was a big step for us. There is so much more to go, but this is defiantly a better start. We just need to get on a little bit of a run the other way and start building that confidence. (The players) competed much better tonight since they have eight games, other than Grande Prairie, this is a much better effort. Slowly but surely they got it more tonight. When you start getting confidence and you start believing that things will work and just give it that extra every time you play then I think you’ll start seeing this team play and you won’t even recognize it by Christmas time,” Head Coach and General Manager Brian Curran said.
The Dragons will now travel to Spruce Grove tonight (Wednesday) to face the Saints at 7 p.m. before hosting the Calgary Canucks on Friday (October 23). Game time will be 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Arena. The team will then head to Olds to face the Grizzlys the next day.
