The Saddle Lake Warriors (4-3-0) exacted revenge on the St. Paul Canadiens (2-3-0) in an 11-3 victory at Manitou Kehiw Arena on Satruday night.
After the Canadiens picked up a 5-4 victory in the teams’ first matchup of the season, the Warriors evened up the season series on home ice in convincing style.
The Canadiens jumped to a 2-0 lead on goals from Marshall Derocher and Dyson Karbashewski, but Tyler Haineault and Eric Peterson both scored for the Warriors to knot the game up after 20 minutes.
In the second period, Barry Partridge gave the Warriors the lead, which was later extended to 5-2 by Jojo White and Dallas Desjarlais.
Canadien Jalel Abougouche cut the lead to two with a goal late in the second, but it wouldn’t be enough, as Desjarlais and Partridge added their second goals of the night in the third period, while White completed the hat trick and Kevin Krengtektak added one of his own.
Saddle Lake defenceman Isaiah Cardinal said that the Warriors were able to continue adding to the goal column in Saturday’s affair with St. Paul because they maintained their composure on the ice.
“That's something we've been working on, just skating away from those dumb plays. I thought the guys did a really good job with that,” said Cardinal. “It feels good to come out here and get a big win, especially the way we did, keeping our composure.”
White, who is a new addition to the Warriors this season, said that it was easy for him to step into his role in Saddle Lake as he already has a good deal of chemistry with a number of his teammates.
“I like it here, right away I got into things because I know a lot of the boys,” said White, who has 10 goals and four assists through seven games this season.
The Canadiens were missing a good deal of offensive talent due to injury, and Head Coach Joe Young said that while the current state of the injured reserve is “too much,” he’d rather it happen now than later in the season.
“I think that's the determining factor, when you don't have your top two lines. I give all the credit to these guys who worked extremely hard tonight, but we just didn’t have enough punch up front,” said Young. “I take nothing out of this game at all. We wanted our guys to work hard, and it worked out that some guys who haven't played much this year got a lot of ice time tonight . . . (The Warriors) have good forwards on their team, a lot of speed, it's just tough when you can't match speed for speed like we couldn't tonight.”
Due to the Canadiens’ injury situation, Young assigned defenceman Marshall Derocher to the wing in a scoring role for Saturday’s matchup in Saddle Lake, and the six-foot-three, 190-pound defender stepped up with a goal and an assist.
“I just took it upon myself to go out there with a lot of energy and really grit my teeth. On my first shift it paid off and I got a nice rebound from my line mate Jalel (Abougouche),” Derocher said of his goal, adding that he is happy to take on any task that Young requests of him. “I'm just here to do my job. I'm not the most skilled player, but I've got a big body. Ever since I played minor hockey I've been a couple inches taller than everyone.”
Abougouche was in on all three Canadiens goals, scoring one late in the second period and assisting on the first two.
Young said that Derocher has been a solid addition to the roster this season, and that size and toughness gives him an edge in defending his fellow teammates on the ice.
“Marshall's been really good for us. We needed him to play forward tonight, he played and got a goal, he's an extremely tough young man,” said Young. “He protects a lot of the skill guys and lets them do their work, and if he has to do his (offensive) job, then he gets in there and does that as well.”
