To start December, the Olds Grizzlys were fresh off of some moves to make a push right before the Christmas break, and ultimately the trade deadline.
The month started against the #2 placed Lloydminster Bobcats, who visited the Olds Sportsplex with key players gone off east to play in the World Jr. A Challenge. The Grizzlys fans were treated to a high scoring first period with back and forth play between the two teams. The Grizzlys struck first, before the Bobcats tied things right back up. Straight back onto the scoreboard was Brendan Thomas, netting his 2nd of the season. Lloydminster tied things up again before just 29 seconds later, star rookie, Ryder Riedel scored his 4th of his rookie campaign to end the 1st period. Ryland Molde got the monkey off his back, finding the back of the net for his 4th, marking his first goal since September 28th! Unfortunately, the Bobcats would tie things up with two special teams markers. But at the end of the 2nd, Ayaan Vira came in clutch, scoring his 1st career junior hockey goal with a shot from behind the goal line to give the Boys in Black & Gold the lead! The 3rd period was high-intensity hockey, with lots of penalties but ultimately no goals scored leading to a huge Olds Grizzlys win! Jordan Wales picked up 2 assists through the game, helping the offence, while Ryder Riedel picked up an assist with his 1st period marker for 2 points as well. Connor Johnson ultimately stood tall in net, making 30 saves on 34 shots for his 6th win of the season!
Our newcomers, Owen Hutzul, earned Player of the Game, while Aaron Sawatzky was named Hardest Worker!
The next day, the Grizzlys took on the Devon Xtreme in a Sunday afternoon matchup, in what was one of the Grizzlys most disciplined games of the season. The Xtreme also down a key player away at the World Jr A challenge. The 1st period was opened up by Ryder Riedel, again, finding the back of the net for his 5th goal. The Xtreme tied things up before Sean Richards caught a net front tip for his 6th of the season, to end the 1st. The only action in the 2nd was two Xtreme goals for the game-tying goal, and the ultimate go-ahead goal. The 3rd only saw an empty net insurance goal, as the Xtreme went back north with 2 points.
Just 5 days later, the Grizzlys were up north in Devon for a rematch. The 1st period ended with the Xtreme taking a 2-1 lead with David Hoy finding the back of the net on a beautiful passing play on the power play for his 6th goal of the season. The 2nd period saw improvement, with new defenceman Owen Hutzul scoring his 2nd of the season, but 1st in the Black & Gold with a power play marker. Sean Richards struck right back with a spin-around slapshot for the 7th of his season. Those two goals led to a 2nd period finish of 4-3 in favour of the Xtreme, before they ultimately finished the 3rd with 3 more goals unanswered, giving the Grizz a 7-3 loss. The 3rd period saw some fireworks as tension rose with Calder Hutt and Brendan Thomas dropping the gloves with two fights at once. Sean Richards, Ryder Riedel, and David Hoy all came out of the game with 2 points each, being huge components of the team’s offence.
The very next day, the Boys in Black & Gold made the trip to face off against the #1 seed Whitecourt Wolverines. The last time these two teams faced off, the Grizz came out on top with the biggest win of the season, and the boys looked to get another. The 1st saw no action and was finished with the score of 0-0 with strong back-and-forth play from both teams. The 2nd was opened up with a Whitecourt goal to get on the board, before rookie sensation Jordin St. Louis tied things up! This was the Portland Winterhawks prospect’s 11th goal of his rookie season. And exactly 1 minute later, leading scoring defenceman, Brody Martin, found the back of the net for the go-ahead goal and 3rd of his season. The 3rd period only saw a tying goal from the Wolverines that sent the game to OT, where the Grizzlys came up short, going home with 1 point from the overtime loss. Connor Johnson made 34 saves on 37 shots, playing the most important role of the game, keeping the boys competing through the full 60 minutes.
On a weekday matchup on Wednesday, December 17th, the Grande Prairie Storm braved the weather that shut down highways to visit the Olds Sportsplex on their South Division road trip. Just three weeks earlier, the two teams swapped players in a trade where defencemen Owen Hutzul came to the Grizzlys and Braeden Veldhuizen went the other way. Veldhuizen was out with an injury, but Hutzul was in the lineup and was looking for a revenge game against his former team. After some doubt in the game’s start due to the weather, the two teams started their 60-minute battle! The Grizz got an early powerplay but couldn’t capitalize, before GP struck first to gain the early lead in an uneventful 1st period. The 2nd was a little more tense after a goal was called off from a Ryder Riedel net rush that caught the Storm goalie. But immediately after, on an identical play, Presley Kerner caught a pass from Jordin St. Louis for his 2nd goal of the season for the first Grizz marker of the game, and only of the second to send things tied up at one apiece. The 3rd didn’t go in the Grizzlys direction with 2 back-to-back Storm goals to take a lead. At the end of the game, with the goalie pulled, Owen Hutzul was able to strike with the extra attacker against his former team to net his 3rd of the season and 2nd as a Grizzly. While the Boys in Black & Gold struck to get within one, that was all for the game, and the Storm would go home with 2 points. Presley Kerner had the best game of his season, scoring once and getting a piece of Hutzul’s late tally. Connor Johnson kept the team in the game, making 37 saves on 40 shots, along with making highlight reel save after highlight reel save, playing an incredible game in net.
For the final game of 2025, the Fort McMurray Oil Barons came to battle on the final night of their South Division road trip. The game started in the opposite favour of the Grizzlys, with two quick goals from the Barons to open things up, but that wasn’t it for the first period as Presley Kerner got a tip off of a Brendan Thomas shot on the powerplay for the 3rd goal of his season. The second period was off to a better start with Hubert Larose sniping the puck past the Oil Barons goaltender for the 4th of his rookie season to tie things up, and it was capped off by Jordan Wales catching a drop pass from Kerner and going bardown to take a momentary lead as the Barons would score one more to tie things up heading into the 3rd period. The 3rd period started with a bang, with Jordan Wales once again finding the back of the net for his 2nd of the night and 6th of the season. Unfortunately, that was all for the Grizz as the Barons would go on to tie the game back up, before netting the game-winning goal with 45 seconds left to avoid overtime and go home with another 2 points. Presley Kerner would go on to have a goal and an assist for the second game in a row, while Brendan Thomas would get two primary assists on the first two goals of the game for his 3rd multi-point game of the season. And Jordan Wales, with the best game he’s played in a Grizzlys uniform, was able to net 2 goals, along with an assist, being very valuable to the Grizzlys early success in the game.
The Grizzlys are back at home in the new year when the Drumheller Dragons visit the Olds Sportsplex on Sunday, January 4th for a 3PM afternoon matchup.
Skip the line and secure your seats today: tickets.oldsgrizzlys.ca
