Despite a valiant comeback, which included four unanswered goals in the third period, the St. Paul Junior B Canadiens fell 8 - 6 to rivals the Saddle Lake Warriors on Thursday at the Clancy Richard Arena.
In a battle between teams separated by just two points in the lower end of North Eastern Alberta Junior B League, the home side put pressure on their opponents early in the game, however a slap shot from the point five minutes in put the Warriors ahead. They doubled the lead on the power-play soon after when a rebound was picked up from a shot by Warriors captain Cole Steinhauer in the slot and driven home by Jordan Moosewah.
At the start of the second period, the Habs were outshot 18 -10 by the Warriors, who extended the lead when Patrick Gladue scored shorthanded on a two on one. After failing to score on a two-man advantage, the Canadiens finally got on the board after Anthony Garnier sent a slap shot from the point past Warriors netminder Coleman Waddell’s glove side.
St. Paul forward Dustin Ouellette suffered an injury from a bodycheck and was helped off the ice near the end of the second period. After the stoppage in play his teammates answered by cutting the lead to one after some nifty work right off the draw in the Warriors’ zone.
The Warriors stormed out of the gates to start the third by scoring three unanswered goals, one on the power-play, before Canadiens head coach Tony Meger called a timeout. The pep talk seemed to have worked as the Habs staged a comeback reminiscent of the recent Canada, Russia game that took place this past week.
A slapper from Garnier, wrist shot from Skyler Giroux and a heads up play by Justin Funk before Giroux scored on the backhand put the Habs back within one. The Warriors held firm and with only minutes remaining doubled the lead again on the counterattack. The Warriors added an empty netter, but not to be outdone, St. Paul's Mackenzie Trach provided a great individual effort goal to restore a bit of pride and a sense of to be continued when the teams play each other again on Jan. 13.
"The boys get rattled, that's been our problem all year," Habs coach Tony Meger said after the game regarding his strategic decision to call a timeout. "I could see it happening again and all I wanted to do was just tell them if we play hockey we still got a chance and it seemed to work."
Both teams are now level on points at the bottom of the league, however the Warriors have the advantage on goal differential. The number of players attending practice and games for St. Paul as well as the number of injuries has been an issue, but Meger hopes things will turn around this season.
"St. Paul is in a rough spot right now," he said. "We've been down in the bottom for the third or fourth year now so there's not many players who want to come and play here, but we're trying to turn that around.
"If you put us out there with a full squad, that makes a big difference. We could have won this game tonight."
The Canadiens head to Cold Lake tonight to take on the division leading Ice while Saddle Lake hosts the Vegreville Rangers.
