Your Drumheller Dragons kicked off their weekend road trip on Friday night in Whitecourt against the league leading Wolverines.
Heading into the game, the season series was in favour of the Wolverines, who had won the two previous meetings. The league leading scorer, Jalen Bianchet had an opportunity to break a Wolverines record with a single point, making him the overall leader in points in franchise history. He didn’t waste any time as Bianchet would score only 41 seconds into the game, giving Whitecourt the 1-0 lead. The Dragons would tie the game at 7:13 when Jensen Marsh snapped in his 12th of the year, set up by Tristan Payne and Rowan McDonald. The game would remain tied 1-1 after the first period.
The Dragons would come out flying in the second period with most of the play being in the Whitecourt zone. Drumheller would take their first lead of the game with a powerplay marker by Luca Dufour (5), assisted by Lauchlan Kozicky and Eli Johnson at 5:39. Less than two minutes later, the Dragons would increase their lead to 3-1 on another powerplay goal, this time by Tristan Payne, set up by Allen Sherpa and Jacob Goudreau. Whitecourt would answer at 10:02 with a powerplay goal of their own by Xander Schulte, cutting the deficit to 3-2. Only 24 seconds later, the Wolverines would tie the game with a quick snapshot by Braden Nienaber. The game would remain tied 3-3 after two periods.
Whitecourt has been very successful this year when tied after two periods, with a record of 6-1. Nobody told the Dragons that stat. Luca Dufour would tally his second goal of the game (6), assisted by Jacob Goudreau and Matthew Hilderman at 4:40 to give the Dragons the 4-3 lead. Whitecourt would push back but Dragons netminder Sean Cootes would stand tall. Drumheller would increase their lead with 7:18 remaining as Tristan Payne scored his second of the night (6), assisted by Allen Sherpa and Brayden Ryan-McKay. Drumheller, with their third powerplay opportunity of the game would capitalize for the third time with a lazer by Eli Johnson (2) at the point, set up by Lauchlan Kozicky and Sullivan Humeniuk, making it 6-3 Dragons with 3:29 left in the game. Whitecourt would try to counter but Drumheller would hold them for the 6-3 win.
Hardest Working Dragons – Sean Cootes stopping 26 of 29 shots
3 Stars
- Luca Dufour DRM – 2 goals and the GWG
- Tristan Payne DRM -2 G, 1 A
- Lauchlan Kozicky DRM – 2 A
The Dragons continue their road trip on Saturday night in Drayton Valley with their final matchup of the season. An early Saturday start at 5 PM and you can listen to all the action with Jason Blanke starting at 4:45 PM with the Fountain Tire Drumheller Pregame Show on New Country 92.5.
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