The Fort McMurray Oil Barons opened up a huge first period lead Saturday night against the Olds Grizzlys and never looked back as they were able to fend off the visitors 6-3.
The Barons top line of Reed Morison, Jaedon Leslie and Kole Gable got the ball rolling early as they scored the games first three goals. The First coming on the first shift of the game as a Max Struss shot hit a Grizzly player and went right to Morison who buried his league leading 31st goal, 58 seconds into the game.
Morison would then spring Gable and Leslie on a two-on-one. Gable coming down the left wing fired a shot past the glove hand of Jay Thomson.
A little over three minutes later, Leslie spotted Gable back door and the Fort McMurrayite hammered in his second of the period and 15th of the year to open up a 3-0 lead 10:39 into the game.
Tyson Scott would go bar down moments later on a MOB powerplay to round out the scoring in the period as the MOB scored four goals on just 12 shots to chase Thomson. Duncan Hughes would take over to start the second period in goal for the Grizzlys.
Hughes made a couple big stops early in the period before Taner Miller was allowed to walk in off the left point and beat him with a shot on the short side. Jarred White and Liam Izyk drew the assists and each extended their point streaks to five games.
The Grizzlys would come on late in the period to get on the board with a powerplay goal from Hunter Floris before Hunter Leslie tucked in a breakaway through the pads of Josh Dias who was making his fourth straight start for the Barons.
Mid-way through the third period, Izyk tied up his man off a face-off and Tyler Maser pulled the puck out and dished to Peter Tomaras who buried his fourth goal in his last five games to give the MOB a 6-2 lead.
Floris would score a weird one from the corner that fooled Dias late in the game to round out the scoring.
The MOB have now won six straight games against the Grizzlys dating back to the 2015-16 season.
The MOB will continue their five game homestand to kick off 2019 with a pair of games against the Drayton Valley Thunder on Friday and Saturday. You can get your tickets at the Casman Centre box office or online.
Written by: Taylor Pope, mymcmurray.com
Photo by: Dan Lines