Both the St. Paul Junior B Canadiens and the Saddle Lake Warriors encountered some tough losses this past weekend and sit two points apart at the bottom of the North Eastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League.
The Warriors hosted league leaders Cold Lake on Friday night and jumped out to an early 2 �€“ 0 lead after goals from Jared Cunningham and Braedin Makokis-McGilvery. Not phased by the slow start, the Cold Lake Ice answered by throwing its weight around and stampeded into the offensive zone. Before the period was up the Ice had taken a 3 �€“ 2 lead.
Cold Lake continued its physical dominance in the second period by scoring five unanswered goals before Cunningham pulled one back for the home side. The visitors added two more in the third period to win 10 �€“ 5.
The Habs traveled to Lloydminster Friday night for a tussle with the Bandits. The Canadiens were outshot 73 �€“ 15 and lost the game 9 �€“ 3. St. Paul forward Skyler Giroux had a pair of goals and Dino Meger added the other.
Saddle Lake�€™s Sunday night home game against the Killam Wheat Kings started similar to the last contest as they again took an early lead after Jelani Whitstone�€™s powerplay goal just over a minute in. The Wheat Kings answered late in the first period, but started the second strong with three goals to widen the deficit before Dusty Iron netted the Warriors�€™ second. Two more Killam goals from Jason Yuha and Jordan Sand put the game beyond doubt as the Wheat Kings came away with a 6 -3 final.
St. Paul made its way to Thorhild the same night for a disappointing 5 �€“ 3 loss to the Titans. Habs head coach Tony Meger said after the game his players didn�€™t really start to move their legs until they were down 5 �€“ 1.
�€œWe could have played a little bit better,�€ he said. �€œIt almost reminded me of the games we play against Saddle Lake. We don�€™t seem to give our full effort when we need it.�€
St. Paul has become notorious for starting out slow and staging comebacks like the last two games they played against the Warriors, as well as having the team�€™s goalie continuously bail them out.
�€œWe probably played a little better against Lloyd,�€ he added. We had tempo that game. Our goalie (Todd) Pooke had another phenomenal game. He sort of has that Tim Thomas style where you don�€™t know where he�€™s at.�€
Saddle Lake heads to Cold Lake this Friday for a rematch with the Ice while the Habs face the Rangers in Vegreville.
