Nunes Sports and Stuff

  The long title is the concise summary of the Halloween night 3-2 loss for the Spruce Grove Saints.  The Saints "opened" the scoring 2:16 into the second period when London Taylor led a 3-on-1 down the ice, give-and-go pass with Jacob Hamel, shot saved, rebound buried! After a lengthy review, it was deemed Cash Lanigan interfered with the Vipers goaltender. After personally rewatching the video a handful of times my presumption is the refs feel Lanigan, despite being tied up well by the Vipers defender, mindfully knocked the stick out of the goalies hand. Suppose Lanigan should take that as a compliment cause the hand-eye coordination to pull that off is top tier. The Saints opened the scoring for real on the powerplay just over four minutes later. A broken up zone entry turned into a beautiful passing play between Patrick Woods, Junior Podein and Felix Haibock. The powerplay goal by Haibock ties him for the lead in this category.  New Saints defender Jackson Arango took...

  The Spruce Grove Saints highlight pack found HERE . It is what I am reliant on as the October 30 game is one of a handful games I am unavailable to dedicate three hours to watch. Going into the game the Saints needed to continue tinkering with a lineup that had lost six straight. The team picked up Jackson Arango on defense, releasing recently acquired Jeppe Bertram. The Club also split up their opening day opening line of Alexy Lachaine, Felix Haibock and Junior Podein into three different lines. Owen Leckelt, who had played every game this season, is listed as injured adding to the shake and bake of the lines. Podein and Noah Taylor were paired together, both players with proverbial monkeys on their back as the scoresheet has been eluding them. Pictured is Taylor when he scored his first goal of the season removing the monkey. Podein sent his monkey to Timbucktoo as he netted four (4!) goals. Alexander Levshyn earned his first victory since coming to the Saints. Christmas in Oc...

Colten Scott gets the net back for the Spruce Grove Saints as they try to avoid a 6-game losing streak. Avoiding spending the first minute of the game hemmed into their own zone would be a start. Lucas Cilan, drawing in for Gavin McNeil, won the opening faceoff and his linemates Cash Lanigan and Lucas Achim got some offensive zone time. The low bar of having a good first minute has been cleared! How about scoring the first goal? Foible with this plan...West Kelowna were outshooting Spruce 7-0 going into the first media break. Michael Zuyev with the first Saints shot with 6:24 remaining. Owen Cronan and Lanigan with shots ahead of a stoppage in play with 1:35 remaining in the opening period. Warriors lead 1-0. The Warriors had a minute left in their third powerplay of the game entering the second period. Their second powerplay goal of the game ensued, Saints down 2-0. If you're a wrestling fan the shots at this point are 3:16. Junior Podein draws a penalty. Achim draws another penal...

  Changes; Noah Taylor out, Gavin McNeil rides shotgun with Owen Leckelt and Scott Sandilands. Lucas Cilan out, Richard Krnac centers Owen Cronan and Max Finley. This bumps Cash Lanigan up to joining Junior Podein and Lucas Achim. On defense Jeppe Bertram sits so Micheal Zuyev draws back in. A bit of a surprise , Alexander Levshyn gets the net on back-to-back nights. Okay boys, lets not lose our 5th in a row! Once again the game starts with the Saints hemmed into their own zone for the opening minute of the period. Trail would register a goal on two shots. Early candidate, like three minutes in, for save of the game is Levshyn making an in-tight breakaway save after a turnover by Cole Bent. Mr Bent had a rough opening frame. On separate shifts, Lanigan-Podein-Achim responsible for first two Saints shots. Opening minute of the second period was almost a carbon copy of how the game started with Trail dominant but Levshyn stood tall. Captain Lachaine was around the scrum that bec...

  The Spruce Grove Saints, after starting the season with two wins, have been struggling this season. Heading into last weekends games the Club shuffled deck in net by acquiring goaltender Alexander Levshyn from the WHL Prince George Cougars. Heading into this weekends threesome of games, the Saints added another former Cougar in defenseman Kaeson Fisher. Fisher drew into the lineup at the expense of Micheal Zuyev. Fisher and Levshyn spent the entire first minute of the game together as the Cranbrook Bucks collected five (5!) shots. The Saints had the first powerplay of the game. Patrick Woods was elevated to powerplay one and was charged with an intentional offside. Defenseman Brett Barnes with the best scoring opportunity but he promptly "had" to take a penalty to break up a Bucks breakout with eleven seconds to go in the man advantage.  Woods was in Junior Podein's spot on a line with Alexy Lachaine and Felix Haibock. Woods was setup by Haibock for a good scoring oppor...

After a pair of losses at the showcase the Spruce Grove Saints filled their open roster spot, originally presumed to be for forward Luke Norcross, on a new goaltender. Welcome Alexander Levshyn, most recently of the Prince George Cougars of the WHL. Levshyn made three saves on the Saints first penalty kill of the game. Alexy Lachaine carries the puck up the ice with numbers on the Bulldogs and scores to tie the game. This is the first shorthanded goal of the season for the Saints. The Saints first powerplay was coming out of the media break in the second period, a 4-minute opportunity. Three minutes of it was frustration watching them miss the net and attempt 20-foot drop passes. Then Junior Podein gets set up and robbed. Play continues and Felix Haibock scores from near the blueline. 33 seconds later, Owen Leckelt dumps the puck in. The Bulldogs goalie behind the net with the puck gets poke-checked by Scott Sandilands. Leckelt collects the puck and deposits it into the net to tie the ...