Story Coming In:
The Oil Barons wrap up a three game home-stand against the Brooks Bandits. Heading into the contest, Fort McMurray has dropped six in a row. Goals against has been an Achilles heel for the MOB, as they have given up four or more in each game of their losing skid. However, there have been a few bright spots for Fort McMurray. Gage Stewart looked stellar in his Oil Barons debut on Saturday showing that he could be leaned on in goal, Carter Schmidt is riding a three game point streak and has constantly been one of Fort McMurray’s best players, and the power-play has been clicking at 23.8% since the Christmas break. The team will need to focus on shoring up their defensive game to improve the chances of success.
View From Brooks:
The Oil Barons have not seen the Bandits since October 17th. Since then, Brooks went 26-3, placing themselves back on top of the AJHL standings. With five points separating them from the second place Sherwood Park Crusaders, the reigning three time national champions look to continue their dominance to guarantee themselves home ice advantage through the playoffs this season. Big pieces of the Bandits success is their number one ranked offense (which has scored 224 goals), their number one ranked defense (which has only allowed 82 goals), and their number one ranked penalty kill (sitting at a 90.5% success rate). Brooks also boasts four top ten scorers in the AJHL (Buttazzoni, Sawyer, Lalonde and DeGraves), while their goaltending has allowed the fewest goals against in the league thus far this season.
Stats Leaders For Fort McMurray:
Goals: Gaul (18)
Assists: Lamanna (17)
Points: Gaul (26)
PIM: Hoogendoorn (72)
Goalies: Nelson: 6-8-0-2, 3.68 GAA, 0.911%, 1 SO
Get your tickets here: https://tickets.fortmcmurrayoilbarons.ca/events/26152-brooks-bandits-vs-fort-mcmurray-oil-barons