No clever title, this Spruce Grove Saints loss sucks

Fresh off the surprise scratch on Saturday, Adam Perron is no longer listed as a Spruce Grove Saint heading into the BCHL Showcase. Max Finley with his 105 WHL games of experience will being joining the roster. As for Monday night Patrick Woods drew back in for Richard Krnac. 

Unfortunately Woods would only play just over one period. Woods with the hit from behind penalty which created a donnybrook. Woods ejected from the game with the 5-minute major. Was the hit dirty? In the sense it was from behind as there was no follow through into the boards. If the mission is to take these kind of hits out of hockey, it is, then it was the right call.

At the midway of the major, Felix Haibock and Junior Podein broke out on a 2-on-2 drawing a Bulldogs penalty. 4-on-4 Gabriel Kenny springs Haibock for a breakaway but he missed the net then Jacob Hamel with a nice end-to-end rush. With over 20 saves already to his credit, a mere eight seconds after the major expired, the Bulldogs finally snuck one past Joseph Quintilio.

Quintilio with a huge save on a 2-on-1 a couple minutes after the goal. Q made multiple odd man rush saves and gets stuck with the hard luck loss despite collecting 39 saves. A handful of those saves while the team was down two men.

The line of Alexy Lachaine-Haibock-Podein were reunited in the second period and each player had multiple scoring chances. The annoyance here is with Captain Lachaine putting the puck into the net after the buzzer went off to end the game. True captains don't perform this kind of unsportsmanlike conduct. 

Hamel was a spark plug on this night with multiple end-to-end skates, good powerplay work at the point, and good effort in his own zone. A tip of the cap to another 2008 defenseman in Cole Bent. You can already see much improvement in the few short weeks of the season in both.

After ths Bulldogs made it 2-0 with Brett Barnes in the penalty box, that's makes it 7 of 9 games with a minor for Barnes, Noah Taylor gets boarded. No call, he struggles off the ice. Taylor's next shift he watches his teammate Bent do much less but get assessed a penalty. 49 seconds into that minor Hamel hits a falling Bulldogs player and is assessed his own boarding minor. 

Scott Sandilands drew the penalty which Lachaine scored the lone Saints goal banging in a Lucas Cilan shot. Sandilands also had two shots in the last minute scramble trying to tie the game. 

Next up, Tuesday night as the road team in the neutral site game at Silent Ice versus Cowichan Valley.