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Drumheller Dragons win three game home stand

The Dragons bounced back defending a home stand with three straight victories.
The Dragons were in front of a hometown crowd on Friday, December 16 to take on the Lloydminster Bobcats.
Lloydminster got the jump off the faceoff and scored just 28 seconds into the game. It didn’t take long for the Dragons to find their legs and Adam Raesler hit the back of the net three minutes later to tie the game. Vann Yuhas scored on the powerplay with eight minutes left in the period, and was followed up by Sam Simard at 16:62. The Dragons led 3-1 after the first period.
The Bobcats made it a little closer in the second with a goal, but Adam Raesler scored his second of the game and ninth of the season at the 4:32 mark of the third period to put it out of reach. The Dragons win 4-2.
On Saturday, December 17, the Dragons hosted the Bonnyville Pontiacs. The Dragons outshot the Pontiacs 10-4 in the first period, but the game remained scoreless until 13:47 of the second period when the Pontiacs took the lead.
The third period was all Dragons as Raesler scored at 8:24 to tie it up. Connor Poffenroth put the Dragons ahead a minute and six seconds later. 29 seconds after that, and with 10 minutes left in the game, Easton Adrian put the Dragons up 3-1 for the win.
On Monday, December 19 the Dragons hosted the Grande Prairie Storm. Adam Raesler continued his stellar play and put the Dragons up one after the first period. The Storm bounced back in the second with two straight goals, but Yuhas tied it up on the powerplay. The Dragons outshot the Storm 10-2 in the final period, and with just 27 seconds left, Cot Pighin scored the winner.

The Dragons round out 2022 on Wednesday, December 21 at the Canmore Recreation Centre taking on the Eagles.

Saints win home tourney

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The St. Anthony’s Junior B Boys Saints basketball team won their home tournament in a convincing fashion, going undefeated.
The Saints hosted their Invitational tournament on Friday, December 9, and invited Menno Simmons Christian School and Linden. Youngstown dropped out at the last minute.
The Saints first faced Linden and came away with a 67-7 win. Rylan Masson has 22 points in the effort.
They next played Menno Simmons and won 50-11, with Joseph Makse scoring 15.
This put them in the final to face Menno Simmons again. This time it was closer, but the Saints won out 35-20. This time Adrian Candelaria was the top scorer with 11 points.
So far this season the Junior B Saints are undefeated. The first game was on Monday, December 5, and they defeated Youngstown 67-22.

Big Valley's Thurston wins third world championship

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Big Valley Cowboy Zeke Thurston has won his third National Finals Rodeo (NFR) World Championship and did it riding consistently.
Thurston has been having a great season in Saddle Bronc. He won the Canadian National finals and then competed through all 10 rounds in Las Vegas last week to win the NFR championship.
“That was an unreal week. I drew some outstanding horses. My goal coming in here was…“I came off of a big win at the Canadian Finals, my goal was to make the best possible ride on every horse that I had, it didn’t matter what kind of a horse it was. I feel like I did that and this was the end result,” said Thurston.
One ride that stood out was in the fourth round where Thurston drew Championship Pro Rodeo’s Heaven On Earth. This was the first and only qualified ride on this horse in the 2022 season.
“I just figured I would get a good spur out and try to get ahead of him right there. I watched a bunch of videos of him annihilating everybody, so I thought, might as well just roll the dice and get it on,” he said.
He scored an 88.5 ride on Heaven On Earth. He rode All or Nothin in the final round and earned an 89.5.
Thurston finished the season with his career-best earnings of $399,916. While he won the world title by more than $58,000 over his closest competitor, it was a close week with four all having a shot at winning the gold buckle.

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