OLDS — Starting Friday, the Olds Grizzlys will hit the road for three games – two this weekend and another the following Friday.
They face off against the Whitecourt Wolverines Nov. 15 and the Devon Extreme Nov. 16. Then they have a few days to get ready to take on the Thunder Nov. 22 in Drayton Valley.
After that, the Grizzlys start a four-game homestand, hosting Drayton Valley twice as well as taking on Camrose and Drumheller.
Grizzlys head coach Brad Tobin has some thoughts about how they can win on the road.
“As a team we just need to come in with the same energy as we had on Saturday,” he wrote in an email to the Albertan.
“Whitecourt has had our number, but we feel that if we play the right way, we’ll earn a victory to start off the road trip.”
The Olds Grizzlys gave their fans a dizzying swing of emotions last weekend at home, going from a 9-3 drubbing by the Kodiaks in Camrose on Nov. 8 to a 3-0 shutout of the Fort McMurray Oil Barons the very next afternoon in Olds.
In the Friday night game, there was no scoring in the first period.
However, the Grizzlys were snowed under in goals in the second period.
After the Kodiaks scored two at 2:46 and 8:00 to take a 2-0 lead, Grizzlys captain Connor Seeley closed the gap to 2-1 with his fourth goal of the season, a powerplay marker, assisted by Mitch Patrick.
But that was it for Grizzlys scoring until midway through the third period.
In the meantime, the Kodiaks scored four more goals in the second and three more in the third period before the Grizzlys answered back with two goals.
Justin Vandermeer scored his first of the season on the powerplay at 12:49 of the third period, assisted by Patrick and Junshi Hideshima.
And at the 15:04 mark of the third, Hunter Motley got his first goal of the season, another powerplay marker, assisted by Patrick and Keil Schmalz.
But that was as close as the Grizzlys could get.
The referees were kept busy. A total of 28 penalties were called during the game.
Grizzlys goaltender Aidan Fischer played 30.52 of the game, stopping 17 of 20 shots he faced. Conner Johnson played the remaining 29:08, stopping seven of 13 shots fired his way.
The Grizzlys got off 29 shots at Camrose goaltender Noah Caballero.
Olds went two for eight on the powerplay. The Kodiaks were a whopping six for eight with the man advantage.
The Saturday game, an unusual afternoon start, was a totally different story goal-wise.
Schmalz opened the scoring at 1:47 of the first period with his first goal of the season, assisted by Vandermeer and Antonio Bevacqua.
Braeden Veldhuizen doubled that lead to 2-0 at the 5:44 mark of the first period with his sixth goal of the season, assisted by Patrick.
There was no scoring in the second period.
In the third period, Vandermeer scored his second goal of the season just 44 seconds into the third period, assisted by Jonathan Doucette and Nolan Viesner to seal the deal.
Ben Dardis got the shutout for the Grizzlys, stopping all 37 shots he faced.
Noah Stenvig of the Oil Barons stopped 36 of the 39 shots fired his way by the Grizzlys.
Both teams had no luck on the powerplay. The Grizzlys were zero for four, the Oil Barons zero for five.
“Tough game on Friday night in Camrose,” said Tobin.
“I think it was good for our guys to play a matinee game the next day,” he added. “It didn’t give us too much time to think about the loss; we got right back into a game.
“Dardis played great against Fort McMurray, he made a few key saves and got rewarded with a shutout.”
