The Dragons were in a back to back series versus the Olds Grizzlys. On Friday night, October 22, the Dragons were in Olds and beat the South Division second place team with a score of 5-2. Olds returned the favour and were at the Dragons Den on Saturday night, and this time got the best of the Dragons. Olds won 5-3, splitting the weekend, with each team winning one. “I thought we played very well. We could have definitely won that second one as well,” said Price.
It didn’t take the Dragons long to get out of the gate on Friday night as four minutes in Doug Jones scored an unassisted shorthand goal. Olds tied the game about 10 minutes later.
In the second period at 13:34, Justin Tateson connected on the powerplay from Evan Warner and Robert Geddes. With 40 seconds left in the period, Brennan Baxandall put the Dragons up 3-1, assisted by Jones.
Olds tried to close the gap scoring two minutes into the third period, but Marcus Toye capitalized on a powerplay assisted by Ryan Bloom and Geddes at the midway point. With eight minutes left, Baxandall scored his second of the night, and Jones earned his third point as the Dragons went up 5-2 for good.
“In the first game, pretty much every good chance we got, we buried. And also I don’t think we gave them as many chances in the first game, we limited turnovers,” said Price.
On Saturday night the Grizzlys wasted no time and were up by two goals less than eight minutes into the game. The Dragons came out revived in the second period and outshot the Grizzlys 14-8, however only connected once as Toye scored on the powerplay, assisted by Kenton Levesque and Davin Stener. Olds scored in the 18th minute to go up 3-1.
Toye scored his second of the night to close the lead to just one, again assisted by Levesque and Stener, but two more goals by Olds put it out of reach. Geddes scored with 34 seconds remaining, and Levesque earned his third assist of the night. Baxandall also chalked an assist.
“We had some very good chances, in addition to our three goals, that didn’t go,” said Price. He adds that at least three goals on the part of Olds were the result of turnovers or giveaways.
“If we eliminate those, I think we would have won the game,” said Price.
The back and forth result is indicative of the parity in the south says Coach Price, as first and fifth place (Dragons’ position as of Monday night) are only divided by six points.
“Any team in the division right now could be seeded from one to eight, it is really that even,” said Price. “It gets us battle ready and playoff ready because we are playing a really good team in a really good game every night.”
Currently the Dragons are sporting an 8-10-0-2 record. Price says the team is getting some big wins over tough teams, but now they need to work on consistency.
“There is a real desire amongst players to take the next step, and to win more of these close games we haven’t won,” he said. “Our next focus is to do it right for several days in a row, and build consistency.”
The Dragons played a home game on Tuesday night in Hanna versus Grande Prairie. They are back on home ice this Friday to face the Canmore Eagles.
