Sherwood Park, AB – The Whitecourt Wolverines (12-4-3) erased a third-period deficit to comeback and beat the Sherwood Park Crusaders (7-9-1) for their sixth straight win on Saturday night.
The Wolverines got off to a hot-start in the game as Tanner Foster opened the scoring with a bullet of a wrist shot from the high slot just four minutes in. The Crusaders began to turn the momentum in their favor late in the period having several shifts of sustained zone time but ultimately trailed at the intermission 1-0.
The second period was dominated by the Crusaders right from the opening faceoff. They would go on to fire 26 shots on goal in the period but only came away with a pair of goals from Garrett Clegg and Merritt Oszytko thanks to some unbelievable goaltending from Tye Morin.
The Wolverines were a deflated and lethargic group heading into the second intermission but looked like anything but that to start the third period. With their legs back under them, they went to work in the offensive zone and at the 6:58 mark got the game tied as Tyr Thompson converted a centering pass from Ryley Smith. Just over a minute later the Wolverines had the lead after Noah Tooke was left wide-open in the left-wing circle and fired a shot past the glove-side of Crusader netminder Brandon Vogel. The Crusaders answered back quickly as Ty Readman deflected a point-shot past Morin. The Crusaders then had two high-quality chances to regain their lead but a pair of spectacular left pad saves by Morin kept the game tied.
With the game looking like it was heading to overtime Ben Evanish ended that thought as he tucked in a rebound generated from a Ryan Grant point-shot to give the Wolverines their third lead of the game. Liam Motley ended any chance of another comeback as he salted the game away with an empty-net goal from the neutral zone to bring the final score to 5-3.
The Wolverines return to home ice on Friday night when they welcome the Drayton Valley Thunder (2-14-0) to town for a 7:30 p.m. faceoff.
Scoring Summary
1st Period:
WCT Goal – 4:00 – Tanner Foster(2) from Liam Motley and Jaedon Leslie (EV)
2nd Period:
SP Goal – 8:59 – Garrett Clegg(7) from Tyler Pang (EV)
SP Goal – 9:18 – Merritt Oszytko(10) from William Zapernick and Brendan Kallis (EV)
3rd Period:
WCT Goal – 6:58 – Tyr Thompson(7) from Ryley Smith and Spencer Bast (EV)
WCT Goal – 8:13 – Noah Tooke(5) from Chase Haygarth and Brayden Labant (EV)
SP Goal – 10:52 – Ty Readman(10) from Payton McIsaac (EV)
WCT Goal – 18:11 – Ben Evanish(9) from Ryan Grant and Stevie Bryant (EV)
WCT Goal – 19:22 – Liam Motley(8) from Ben Evanish and Ryan Grant (EV/EN)
Shots – WCT 28 (6-9-13) SP 42 (8-26-8)
Power plays – WCT 0/2 SP 0/2
Goalies:
WCT – Tye Morin (3-1-0) 39sv/42sh
SP – Brandon Vogel (5-5-0) 23/27sh
Three Star Selection:
1. WCT-Tye Morin (39sv, W)
2. WCT-Tyr Thompson (1g, 1a)
3. SP-Merritt Oszytko (1g)
Hardest Working Wolverine: Ben Evanish (GWG, 1a)
Recap presented by:
