The Oil Barons had to settle for a weekend split with a weekend split against the Drayton Valley Thunder. Ryan Arnold extended his point streak to seven games, Justin Dumais surpassed 25 points on the season, while Brendan Gee was terrific in net stopping 50 of the 53 shots he faced.
Saturday saw a dominant performance by the Oil Barons. Six different skaters found the back of the net for the MOB, while Ryan Arnold, Justin Dumais, Cash Brebant and Evan Benoit each had multi point games. Brendan Gee also turned aside 30 of 31 shots in Fort McMurray’s 6-1 triumph over Drayton Valley. The Thunder had the better run of play through the first period. Outshooting the Oil Barons 14-9 in the period, Gee was forced to make some terrific stops and the Vancouver product kept the game scoreless after one period of play. In the second period, Fort McMurray’s offence came to life. 2:13 in, a Brebant shot bounced off the body of Noah Kelly and beyond Kaden Clegg, giving the Oil Barons the advantage. Just over a minute of a half later, the MOB struck twice. Jaggar John scooped up an Arnold effort and from a tough angle the hometown kid slid the puck under Clegg for his sixth goal of the season. It remained 2-0 until the final two minutes of the period, where Fort McMurray scored three times in the span of 1:43. While on a 5-on-3 power-play, Ewan Gillis blasted home his fifth goal of the season. Then nine seconds later, Evan Benoit slipped in behind the defence to make it 4-0 with his second goal of the year. Then with 4.4 seconds remaining in the second, Brebant set up Cody Nordstrom for a one-timed bomb and the Oil Barons took a commanding 5-0 lead into the intermission. Early in the third period, Drayton Valley would snap Gee’s shutout bid. Breken Northgrave pinballed a shot off a bunch of bodies and by the goaltender, putting the Thunder on the board. However, the MOB got the goal back through an incredible shorthanded goal from Justin Dumais. The Montreal product snuck in behind Taynton Lavender, stole the puck and immediately spun to surprise Archer Cooke for his eighth goal of the year. Things would settle down and the Oil Barons extended their point streak to four games with the victory.
Fort McMurray got off to a better start on Sunday, but ultimately they were frustrated by a great performance by Drayton Valley’s goaltender, Archer Cooke. The Calgary product stopped 32 saves in the win, as the Thunder snapped their six game losing skid. For the second straight day, both teams found themselves scoreless after 20 minutes of play. The Oil Barons opened the scoring early in the second period. Justin Dumais let a shot go that Cooke got a piece, but the puck trickled over the goal line for the Montreal product’s ninth goal of the season. Dumais thought he extended Fort McMurray’s lead with another powerplay goal, but it was waved off after the referees determined he had punched the puck over the goal line. After that, the Thunder got a response. A point shot from Jerrett Ross was deflected home by Damien Hill. The goal stood, despite Drayton Valley having too many players on the ice. Shortly afterwards, the Thunder took their first lead of the weekend. While on the power-play, Drayton Valley outmuscled the Barons in the corner and the puck popped free to Will Jamieson. The veteran from Red Deer tucked home his fifth goal of the season, making it a 2-1 game. The MOB pressed for an equalizer in the third period, but Cooke made a couple miraculous saves on Drew Freer and Justin Dumais preserving the Thunder lead. Drayton Valley added an empty net goal, courtesy of Loughlan McMullan and took home two points.
The Oil Barons are back in action Friday and Saturday when they hit the road again. It’s another important North Division showdown, this time against the Devon Xtreme. Puck drop for both games is at 7pm.
