Our Drumheller Dragons kicked off their 2026 portion of their schedule this past weekend with two games on the road.
Saturday, the team made their final trip to Drayton Valley for the season. The last time the two teams met in Drayton back on December 13th, the Dragons would pull out the 4-1 win and were hoping for the same success in this game.
The Dragons would open the scoring early in the first with Brayden Ryan-MacKay scoring his third of the year, from Nick McLennan at 5:33. Drayton Valley would tie the game on the power play with Jack Sears tallying his fourth of the season at 8:18. The Dragons would capitalize short-handed just over a minute later with Jackson DeGraves scoring his 8th of the year, from Tristan Payne and Jase Johnstone. Unfortunately, DeGraves would crash hard into the end boards which would end his game and his weekend.
Drumheller would take the 2-1 lead into the second and add to their lead early with Tristan Payne scoring his 4th of the season, assisted by Bradley Gallo (AJHL says Schaupmeyer) and Jensen Marsh. Dragons netminder Sean Cootes did his part by turning away the 14 shots in the period, with the Dragons leading 3-1 after two.
In the third, Jase Johnstone would score his third of the year, from Bradley Gallo and Tristan Payne at 7:34, on the man-advantage, giving the Dragons the 4-1 lead. Drumheller would add one more with 36 seconds left in the game as Jensen Marsh scored his 9th of the season, from Gallo and Jase Johnstone securing the 5-1 victory.
The road trip would continue in Olds on Sunday afternoon. The Grizzlys have played the Dragons tough all season with the last three games going to extra time to determine the winner. The Grizzlys started on the right foot with forward Calder Hutt scoring on the penalty shot against Sean Cootes with a pretty goal bar down. The Dragons would tie the game 1-1 with 6:33 remaining in the first period when Bradley Gallo tallied his 19th of the year from Brayden Ryan-MacKay.
Olds would retake the lead at 6:49 of the second period with Finn Bagley scoring his first of the year, unassisted. Drumheller would tie the game with 7:46 remaining in the second with Brayden Ryan-MacKay scoring his second of the weekend (4), from Jacob Goudreau and Nick McLennan. The Dragons would take their first lead of the game with 1:45 left in the period, with Brayden Ryan-MacKay scoring his second of the game (5), third of the weekend, unassisted. Only 24 seconds later, the Dragons would make it 4-2 with Jacob Goudreau scoring his 5th of the year, from Nathan Ivey.
In the third, it would be Nathan Ivey’s turn to light the lamp, with his 4th of the year, from Wyatt Yule and Sullivan Humeniuk, at 2:58, increasing the lead to 5-2. Late in the third, Olds would pull goaltender Corbin Sanderman for an extra attacker on a power play, giving the Grizzlys the six on four advantage. Drumheller would score into the empty net, short-handed, when Lauchlan Kozicky fired the puck from his own end with 3:20 left in the game, securing the 6-2 win for the Dragons.
With the two wins to start 2026, our Drumheller Dragons are now tied for second with the Canmore Eagles, one point back of the Camrose Kodiaks for first place, and two points up on the Calgary Canucks.
This upcoming weekend will be two very important games. Friday night, the Dragons will host the Canmore Eagles, in a battle for second place. Saturday, the Dragons head to Calgary to face the Canucks, which could be a battle for second place as well as the Canucks play Drayton Valley on Monday night, and with the win will be tied with the Dragons and Eagles for second place.
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