For a fourth time this season the Spruce Grove Saints got the better of the Fort McMurray Oil Barons as the Saints pulled out a 5-2 win Friday night.
The two teams met in front of a packed house in Wainwright, Alberta as the Grant Fuhr Arena in Spruce Grove was busy hosting a curling tournament.
After the MOB (32-9-3) opened the scoring, the Saints (36-8-3) scored five unanswered goals in a 9:07 span to end the first period and start the second to help pick up their seventh straight win.
The MOB have now dropped three of their last four games and trail the Saints by eight points for first in the North Division.
The Barons came out strong in the first period and led 6-0 on the shot clock in the game’s opening minutes. They would take a 1-0 lead at the 13:00 mark when Jarred White’s pass deflected off a Saints defender’s stick and caught Braedan Stephen moving the wrong way and found the back of the net.
The Saints would tie things up at 17:19 when the MOB coughed up the puck in front of their own goal and Jordan Biro was able to slide the puck over the goal line.
On the next shift, the Saints roared up the ice on a two-on-one and Parker Saretsky found the league’s leading scorer Chris Van Os-Shaw driving towards the goal. Van Os-Shaw made no mistake burying his league leading 40th goal of the season and extending his goal scoring streak to seven games.
The wheels fell off for the MOB during a 4:31 stretch to start the second period as the Saints dominated play and scored three quick goals to open up a commanding 5-1 lead.
Parker Saretsky buried two in a row and the reigning player of the week now has 15 points in his last six games. His first goal was on a great back door feed from Van Os-Shaw and the second on a bouncing puck that somehow made its way past Eric Szudor.
The Saints fifth goal came off another two-on-one when Seth Fyten dished to Logan Ganie and his shot just squeaked under the arm of Szudor.
The MOB would get a goal late in the third period to round out the scoring when Taner Miller blasted a Reed Morison pass in the high slot past Stephen for his 7th of the year. Coy Prevost picked up an assist on the goal, his first point as an Oil Baron.
For the first time this season the Oil Barons did not have a powerplay opportunity while the Saints went 0-2 on the man-advantage.
Next up, the Barons will head to Lloydminster on Saturday. You can listen to the game on Country 93.3 beginning with the pre-game show at 7:15 p.m. with Taylor Pope.
