Saints win first two against rival Crusaders, set sights on Storm

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The Spruce Grove Saints have struck the first two blows in the battle of Highway 16.

Spruce Grove defeated the Sherwood Park Crusaders 4-3 in overtime and 4-2 in back-to-back contests to start the Alberta Junior Hockey League Season with a record of 2-0-0. Their four points tie them for the division lead with the Fort McMurray Oil Barons through opening weekend.

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Saints win first two against rival Crusaders, set sights on Storm Back to video

“When you make a mistake with the puck Sherwood Park takes advantage of that. I think in the second half of the game Friday and particularly in the second period of the game Saturday, we did a good job of managing the game in the areas we need to to be successful,” said Saints head coach Bram Stephen.

After two periods of tightly contested hockey, the two teams exchanged blows in the final frame to head into overtime tied 3-3. Jayden Davis opened the scoring for Spruce Grove with the lone goal in the first, before Dylan Guenther tied it for the Crusaders with the lone goal in the second period.

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Matt Savoie gave Sherwood Park the lead 11:32 into the third but it was short lived as Saints forward Lucas Ciona drew the contest even again with his first of the year with 4:31 to go. Two minutes later, Davis re-established Spruce Grove’s one goal lead.

With their goalie pulled, Sherwood Park forward Ty Mueller scored with less than two to go to tie the contest and send it to overtime. It took Graham Gamache just 31 seconds to score in the extra frame and give the Saints their first win on opening night. Gamache banged in a rebound out front after feeding Logan Acheson in the slot. The win comes after an 0-5-2 preseason campaign. Goaltender Blake Lyda stopped 18 of 21 shots in the win, while Carson Cherepak stopped 28 of 32 in the loss for Sherwood Park.

“We take a lot of pride in terms of the way we play in the house (out front of the net) and we’ve bought into that this year. Its important both offensively and defensively. We want to protect our house, and we want to invade theirs,” Stephen said.

The Saints carried momentum into Sherwood Park and never looked back as they secured a 4-2 win on Saturday. After Ashton McNally opened the scoring for Sherwood Park, the Saints roared back with four unanswered goals with two coming from Ciona, and singles going to Leyer and Gamache.

“Sherwood Park played a better game Saturday, we felt they had a little bit more tenacity and relentlessness in their game. The first period kind of went back and forth, maybe they had a little bit of an advantage being spurred on by the night before. But we played a really strong second period. We managed our shift length well and we played a similar period to the third period Friday,” Stephen said. “Credit to Sherwood Park, their response was strong the last 12 minutes, they were buzzing better than than they have all season, and we really had to weather a storm, it was good for us to have to do that.”

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Saints goaltender Tyler Palmer made 34 of 36 saves in the victory while Jordan Frey was charged with the loss after stopping 34 of 48.

Up next the Saints will host the Grande Prairie Storm on Friday and Saturday. Both games will take place at the Grant Fuhr Arena beginning at 7 p.m.

“There’s a fair bit of roster turnover from the Storm team last year. They also have a couple of Western Hockey League that will make an impact. They’re a fairly deep team, they’re heavy up front, they have an NHL drafted goaltender in (Paycen) Bjorklund and I think it’s going to be another tough test for us this weekend,” Stephen added.

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