(Brett Doiron #22, hits Crusaders forward Ben Sowa #44, in front of the Oil Barons bench. DAN LINES FORT MCMURRAY OIL BARONS)
Lots of Crusaders traffic and three point shots put the Fort McMurray Oil Barons behind the eight-ball in their best-of-five series against Sherwood Park in a 3-2 loss.
Sherwood Park failed to convert on two power-play opportunities leading to a scoreless first period.
The Crusaders outshot the MOB 12-6 in the first frame.
Crusaders Captain Dane Phaneuf opened the scoring with a rocket point shot at 10:58 of the second period.
MOB defenceman Brett McNeil would tie the game 1-1 just 52 seconds later off a goal mouth scramble.
Another Phaneuf point shot found its way past Oil Barons starter Zach Fortin with just 17 seconds left in the second frame, this one tipped on its way in by Tyler Maltby.
All three Crusaders goals would come from the blue-line on this night.
“All we need to do is tie up sticks in front, we [defenceman] need to trust that our forwards are going to get in lanes and block shots, and we need to block shots ourselves,” said Oil Barons blue-liner Brett McNeil on keeping traffic clear in front of his netminder.
The MOB tied the game early in the third as Adam Durkee fired home a loose puck after a goal-mouth scramble from an errant Jetlan Houcher pass at the 6:28 mark.
Stephen Shmoorkoff scored the lone power-play goal of the night as the Crusaders would then cruise to a 3-2 win.
Crusaders netminder Zac Klassen was stellar, making 25 of 27 saves, he’s been filling in for the injured Tommy Nixon, one of the league’s top goaltenders, but the Crusaders decided to ride the hot hand as Nixon was cleared to play before the game.
Zach Fortin kept his team in the game pushing away all 12 first period shots he faced, and stopped 28 of 31 shots directed his way.
Dane Phaneuf was a force on the ice for the Crusaders with a goal and an assist, Phaneuf is the younger brother of Maple Leafs Captain Dion.
878 took in the first game of the series at the Casman Centre.
“They [Sherwood Park] work they come, they find a way to get goals, to manufacture goals, to send people to the net, a little disappointed in how some of our guys weren’t ready for that. We talked about it non-stop,” said Oil Barons Head Coach Curtis Hunt.
Hunt noted he’s going to re-evaluate the entire line-up ahead of game two tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the Casman Centre.
The Oil Barons seemed hesitant at times, containing instead of attacking on the forecheck making things easy on the Crusaders to break out of their zone.
“It’s always about the little things, who wants it more, are you prepared to do that little thing? Whatever it needs to be at any given time, and most of the time it’s about being hit, getting hit, taking a hit to make a play, blocking a shot. It takes courage to play in the playoffs,” said Hunt.
The two teams split their regular season series with the home side winning each of the six matchups.
Game two is tonight at the Casman, with an 8:00 p.m., puck drop as the Oil Barons look to even the series up at one before heading to Sherwood Park on Sunday for game three.
