This past weekend the Grizzlys refamilarized themselves with previous competitors in the Drumheller Dragons and the Camrose Kodiaks, whom the Grizzlys will come face-to-face with again coming up later this month.
After a Friday night off, the Grizzlys opened the weekend at the Olds Sportsplex with the Drumheller Dragons making the trip up north for the first time this regular season. The last time these two teams faced off was in the preseason with back-to-back games where each team won at home. With a busy Sportsplex, the game went underway and was opened up by Hubert Larose, with his 3rd goal of his rookie season to get things started off strong, before Drumheller closed the period with 2 goals to take a 2-1 lead. The second period was back and forth with goals, as Jordin St. Louis found the back of the net for his 8th goal of the season, before the Dragons scored on the powerplay. That was shortlived with David Hoy netting his 5th goal, but Drumheller scored to take the lead in the game ruining the moment. Tensions were high and Grizzlys were hungry going into the 3rd and who else was it but the hometown boy, Rhett Miller, to get the tip off of a Brody Martin point shot to get things tied up at 4-4. Captain Hunter Motley brought some energy to the game with a center ice fight against Kaiden Shaupmeyer with some 3rd period fistacuffs. That was it for the regular periods as for the 3rd time this season, we got overtime! It was a suspenseful extra frame, but with 1:39 left, reigning rookie of the week, Ryder Riedel completed the comback with the OT win, before hitting a T-pose on the young Grizzlys fans to celebrate, and it was “BBQ chicken”, as Ryder put it. Didsbury native, Riedel ended up finishing the game with 2 assists to go with his OT winner for 3 points, along with St. Louis getting an assist on the OT winner to earn a multi point game. The hero was Corbin Sanderman who earned every moment of his 2nd win of the season making 42 saves on 46 shots.
Brendan Thomas won Player of the Game and Rhett Miller won Hardest Worker of the Game.
For a Sunday afternoon matinee matchup, the Grizzlys made their first trip of the season up north to the Encana Arena in Camrose to faceoff against the Kodiaks looking to build off of last nights win. The start of the game was not friendly to the Grizzlys, as the Grizzlys were scoreless while the Kodiaks scored 3 unanswered. The 2nd period was a wakeup call for the boys in Black & Gold, as Jordin St. Louis got another after he tipped in the loose puck. Riley Pederson answered right back with his 3rd of the season after finding the top corner at a weird angle. The Kodiaks got one more to make things difficult, before Ryder Riedel continued his hot streak by getting the late marker to get the Grizz back within one! Through a hardfought third period, Camrose came out on top after two more tallys, sending the Grizzlys back to Olds unsuccessful. Brendan Thomas kept up his strong play with the only assist of the game, with his 7th assist in his last 5 games played. Connor Johnson fought his way through the game, playing stellar by making 44 saves on 50 shots.
The Grizzlys are back at it on Friday, November 22nd when the Drumheller Dragons are back in town for Vista Radio night before heading down to Drumheller the next night to face off against the Dragons in their home barn.
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