For the first time on the road since the opening weekend of the 2024/25 season, the Oil Barons won back to back games on the same trip. Fort McMurray took down Calgary and Canmore to move into second place in the North Division with 37 points. Brendan Gee picked up both wins in net, Ryan Arnold pushed his point streak to 18 games, while Justin Dumais got career point 100 in Canmore.
Tuesday saw the MOB play a terrific road game against the Canucks. Limiting Calgary to 25 shots, the Oil Barons smothered the opposition in a 2-1 win, breaking Calgary’s six game winning streak at home. The scoring didn’t open until almost halfway through the second period. An errand Wade Wallace pass was picked off by Ryan Arnold, and the veteran scored on the shorthanded breakaway, notching his 20th goal of the year. However, Calgary responded on the same power-play, 19 seconds later. Adam M’hamed threw a puck across the puck and Nicholas Anisimovicz one-timed it to the back of the net. Things tightened up defensively again and there weren’t any goals until the third period. Fort McMurray forced another turnover, Arnold found Justin Dumais, who outwaited former Oil Baron Logan Cunningham to make it 2-1. Fort McMurray continued to limit the chances against, and they started the road trip with a massive win.
Wednesday was a gutsy performance by the MOB. Fort McMurray received some depth scoring en route to a 5-3 win. Dustin Good scored twice, while Cade Petersen, Evan Benoit and Lucas McDonald also found the back of the net. The Oil Barons opened the scoring about midway through the first period. Leo Adams found Petersen on the backdoor, and the Sherwood Park product chipped home his fifth goal of the year. Canmore tied the contest late in the frame. After a right pad save by Gee, Will Lutic poked the rebound home. Fort McMurray’s offence came to life early in the second period. Carter Ellsworth was stopped on a 2-on-1 before Benoit muscled home the rebound. Then Benoit forced a turnover in the offensive zone and the puck slid to McDonald, who wired it top shelf for his sixth goal of the year. Then Good smacked home a power-play goal and Fort McMurray had a commanding 4-1 lead, 7:11 into the second period. The Eagles got one goal back before the end of the frame. Bryson Insinger extended his point streak to seven games, sliding a puck under Gee. The Oil Barons ran into penalty trouble in the third period and saw their lead whittled down to a single goal. John Szabo completed his three point game with a power-play blast to make it 4-3. However, the MOB slammed the door on Canmore. After a terrific save by Gee, Dumais set up Good for an empty net goal, sealing the game for Fort McMurray.
The Oil Barons will wrap up their pre-Christmas schedule with two more games on the road. They will take on the Drumheller Dragons at the Memorial Arena on Friday. Puck drop is at 7pm. Then they will battle the Olds Grizzlys on Saturday. That game starts at 6pm.
