The Olds Grizzlys split a pair of weekend games to open their 2012-13 Alberta Junior Hockey League season, losing the season and home opener 5-4 to the Spruce Grove Saints on Friday and beating the Canmore Eagles 5-2 on Saturday in front of 684 fans at the Olds Sports Complex.
After a bit of sluggish first period in which Bart Moran scored his third goal of the season for the Grizzlys on Saturday, Brandon Clowes scored short-handed while Matt Hanger was in the penalty box serving a blow to the head penalty. The goal seemed to put a charge in both teams, who picked up the tempo after the marker.
“That short-handed goal was a big one for us and it gave us a lot of momentum at that time in the game. I thought we pressured them extremely hard after that and … we forced them to make mistakes, I felt,” said Brett Hopfe, the Grizzlys' head coach, following the game.
Landon Viveiros and Taylor Bilyk also added tallies for the Grizzlys in the second period, taking a 4-1 lead into the locker room after 40 minutes.
Blair Oneschuk rounded out the scoring for the Grizzlys at 18:54 of the third when he stripped an Eagle player of the puck and fired it past Ty Swabb.
Connor Hoekstra got both tallies for the Eagles.
“For the most part, I think our guys played the game hard. We had a very good start (Saturday), which was what we talked about (following Friday's game),” Hopfe said, adding that the Grizzlys capitalized on chances that were presented to them.
“Our goalie (Brandon Thiessen) stepped up (Saturday) after having a suspect game, I felt, on Friday and played extremely well. It was a pretty exciting win all around, I think,” Hopfe said.
In Friday's game, Hopfe said the Grizzlys played hard, but didn't play smart hockey. After the Saints jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first period, the Grizzlys battled, eventually taking a 4-3 lead on a power-play goal by Chris Stachiw in the opening minute of the third period, before Spruce Grove got two unanswered goals to win the game.
“We probably deserved to win that game, I felt. It's just that we made some very dumb mental mistakes that cost us a win. But I thought we learned from that game,” Hopfe said.
