The Fort McMurray Oil Barons vaulted ahead of division rival Sherwood Park on Wednesday night, downing the red-hot Crusaders by a 4-2 score at the Sherwood Park Arena.
The win was Fort McMurray’s 4th in a row, and improves their overall record to 11-2 on the young 2011-12 season.
The MOB’s win came courtesy of a three-goal first period that nearly evaporated before Harrison Hendrix’s clearance the length of the rink provided an empty net game-ender with 1/10th of a second remaining on the clock.
It came after league-leading scorer Peter Quenneville nearly single-handedly eliminated the Barons’ early three-goal lead.
Quenneville, who entered the game with 24 points in 13 games, got the key first assist on Braden Christoffer’s goal at 5:01 of the second period to cut the lead to 3-1.
The speedy Crusader forward fed a pass from the bottom of the right-wing face-off circle to Christoffer at the right side of the net, who was able to jam it past goaltender Brody Hoffman.
Hoffman made 25 saves on 27 shots in the winning effort to move his record to 6-2. He was also credited with his first assist as a Baron on Hendrix’s empty-netter.
Quenneville added a second goal of his own in the last minute of the middle frame, firing a slapshot from the high slot into the top-right corner of the MOB net on the powerplay.
But the Crusaders couldn’t break through a stingy Fort McMurray third period defence. Coach Tim Fragle called his timeout in the final minute of the third, but the ensuing faceoff resulted in first a Fort McMurray clearance, then Hendrix’s empty netter.
The Barons opened the scoring 3:44 into the first period when defenceman Mike Green’s point shot produced a rebound that forward Matt Koebel fired home for his second goal of the campaign.
They doubled their lead at 9:46 of the first when the inimitable top line of Carson Cooper, Justin Rose, and Mitchell Board capped off a three-way passing play with Board’s fifth goal, assisted by his two compatriots and extending reigning player-of-the-week Rose’s point streak to 4 games.
The third goal came with less than a minute to go in the opening stanza, when Killian Hutt’s rush up the right wing resulted in him firing a shot from the faceoff circle past an out of position Patrick Terriss.
Terriss made 24 saves on 27 shots in the losing effort.
The Barons return home this weekend to play the sub-.500 Calgary Canucks on Saturday night at 8pm (pregame coverage at 7:45pm on Country 93.3), before hosting the Lloydminster Bobcats on short rest Sunday afternoon.
| SCORING SUMMARY (OFFICIALLY) |
| PERIOD 1 |
| Fort McMurray Oil Barons at 3:44 – Matthew Koebel from Harrison Hendrix and Brett Printz |
| Fort McMurray Oil Barons at 9:46 – Mitchell Board from Carson Cooper and Justin Rose |
| Fort McMurray Oil Barons at 19:36 – Killian Hutt from Cole Penner and Brock Maschmeyer |
| PERIOD 2 |
| Sherwood Park Crusaders at 5:01 – Braden Christoffer from Peter Quenneville |
| Sherwood Park Crusaders at 19:08 (PP) – Peter Quenneville from Blair Mulder and Jessi Hilton |
| PERIOD 3 |
| Fort McMurray Oil Barons at 19:59 (EN)– Harrison Hendrix from Brody Hoffman |
Tonight’s 3 Stars:
3. Killian Hutt, Fort McMurray (1 game-winning goal)
2. Peter Quenneville, Sherwood Park (1 goal, 1 assist)
1. Brody Hoffman, Fort McMurray (25 saves on 27 shots, 1 assist)
NOTES: Fort McMurray’s offence was diverse again, with four goals from four different goal scorers ….. defenceman Mike Green was officially credited with no points, but did assist on both Koebel and Hutt’s goals ….. if it stands, Brett Printz’s assist in the first period is his first point as an Oil Baron … defenceman Matt Szpak’s goal-scoring streak was snapped at two games ….. the Barons were awarded only two powerplays, and didn’t convert on either ….. Sherwood Park scored on one of its four powerplay chances ….. the Barons were without the services of forwards Markus Gerbrandt (head) and Dylan Seymour (upper body), and defenceman Leighton McLachlan (healthy)
