The St Paul Canadiens had two more games on the schedule this past weekend, along with a mid-week game that was held on Jan. 20.
On Wednesday, the St. Paul team travelled to Vegreville, where they defeated the Rangers 9-5. Then, the Canadiens met up with local rivals the Saddle Lake Warriors in a Friday night matchup of hard-played hockey at the Clancy Richard Arena. The Canadiens took the game by a score of 8-2.
The team closed off the weekend strong with an away game in Onion Lake on Saturday, winning 7-4. The Canadiens gained six points in the league standings over the past week, and continued to sit in third place overall, 12 points ahead of the Cold Lake Ice who sit in fourth, and only two points behind the Killam Wheat Kings.
Head Coach Joe Young spoke the Canadiens “great start to the game,” on Friday, and of their “ability to stick with their systems in a game that was sloppy at times.”
Ryley Wozniak opened the scoring for St. Paul with an assist from Mikael Beaudoin only 17 seconds into the game. Wozniak netted a hat-trick in the game and Beaudoin also had a stout performance putting up a goal and two assists.
Just over six minutes later, Beaudoin added another goal to put the team up 2-0. Saddle Lake’s Keaton Willey was handed a tripping minor at 12:28, and Kona Jackson made no mistake scoring a power play goal for St. Paul, with the helpers coming from Braydon Burak and Tristan Craighead.
St. Paul left the first with a 3-0 lead hoping to expand on it in the second period.
Only 36 seconds into the second period, Wozniak scored his second of three goals in the game with another early goal. Four minutes later, Wozniak finished the hat-trick, assisted by Roddy MacDougall and Beaudoin.
Ryan Rancier added a goal for St. Paul a minute later, which was quickly answered with a goal from Saddle Lake’s Jonas Whitford. The second period ended at 6-1 for St. Paul as the team continued to execute on scoring chances.
The third period had a relatively quiet start with no penalties or goals until the midway point, where Tristan Craighead netted a power play goal for the Canadiens on a Saddle Lake interference penalty.
Morgan Greve assisted Craighead’s goal. Both Craighead and Greve came to St. Paul this month as new acquisitions. Craighead had a goal and two assists on the night, while Greve picked up an assist.
The Canadiens went two-for-three on the power play.
“It was nice to see. We stayed on track and didn’t get sloppy,” despite the large lead St. Paul had for most of the game, said Young.
Dyson Roy scored St. Paul’s final goal of the game with six minutes left, Craighead and Braydon Burak picked up assists on the play. Saddle Lake’s Erik Hamelin added a goal in the final two minutes, making the final score 8-2.
Young was impressed with the effort his team put in, emphasizing how important each game is this late in the season.
“This far into the season, everyone knows our systems and how we play, it’s just a matter of executing. We have peaked at the right time; we’re on a hot streak and no better time to do that with only four games left until the playoffs. We have played well and won six games in a row now, and we have a good situation, it looks like we’ll be able to go pretty far in the playoffs, and every win we get just gives us more confidence going into the playoffs.”
The Canadiens managed to add another win in Onion Lake on Saturday.
Wozniak got his second hat trick in a row and added an assist, while Beaudoin also showed his dominance with a goal and four assists in the high scoring matchup.
Goaltender Mike Rupp picked up both wins on the weekend, facing 53 shots against the Border Chiefs and 35 against the Warriors. St. Paul’s next test is a game against the Vermilion Tigers on Jan. 30, in Vermillion. The Canadiens return home on Feb. 5 to face the number one team in the NEAJBHL - the Wainwright Bisons.
The Canadiens then head to Irma the next day for a rematch against the Bisons, to close off the regular season.
