Charles-Olivier Villeneuve unleashed the bears at Centerfire Place, however, the Oil Barons were denied victory by the Calgary Canucks, falling 3-1. Lukas Renaud was terrific stopping 43 shots, while Vincent Filion was equally as good, turning aside 30 shots in the loss.
Filion kept the game scoreless early in the first period after an eye popping save. Hayden Fechner found himself wide open, only for Filion to stretch out the left pad to deny the Edmonton product. Shortly after that save, Calgary opened the scoring. Riley Bracko worked the puck down the left wing and found a wide open Cody Pisarczyk in the slot, who sniped home his sixth goal of the season, making it 1-0 Canucks. The goal seemed to wake up the Oil Barons who pressed for the teddy bear toss goal in front of almost 1,600 fans, but they would have to wait till the third period before they could unleash the cascade of fur. 7:48 into the third period, Drew Freer fired a shot that was turned aside by Renaud. The rebound kicked out to Villeneuve who lifted it above the down and out goaltender, tying the game at one and releasing the teddy bears. For Villeneuve, the goal extended his point streak to seven games. Fort McMurray continued to press but they couldn’t solve Renaud. With about four minutes left the Canucks found the game winner. A mix up at Fort McMurray’s bench saw Fechner scamper away with the puck. The veteran left it for Bowden Singleton, making his return to Calgary’s lineup, and the captain rifled a shot under the glove of Filion. Pisarczyk added an empty net goal to seal it for the Canucks.
Fort McMurray will look to get back into the win column on Sunday when they visit the Devon Xtreme. It’s an afternoon contest with puck drop at 2pm.
