Whitecourt’s Teydon Trembecky sneaks one past the toe of ‘Cats goaltender Freddie Halyk during Saturday night’s shootout loss. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
After a 3-2 win on the road in Whitecourt, the Lloydminster Bobcats (25-21-2) were hoping to continue their winning streak going into this past weekend’s double-header on home ice.
The Wolverines (25-20-5) came out clawing on Friday night at the Centennial Civic Centre and walked away with a 4-0 win.
The ‘Cats did their best to shake off the loss as they hit the ice on Saturday night, and if it weren’t for some solid goaltending from rookie netminder, Freddie Halyk, the end result could have been a runaway game for the visiting Wolverines.
The ‘Cats played a solid first half on Saturday night and opened up the scoring with an unassisted goal from Chase Visser at 5:58 in the first. Whitecourt would answer back roughly 10 minutes later tying the game 1-1.
The second period looked promising for the ‘Cats after a powerplay goal from Jayven Leslie with assists from Ben Bygrove and Ethan Aucoin two minutes and eight seconds into the period.
Aucoin would give the ‘Cats more hope 9:22 into the second frame with a short-handed goal with an assist from Quinton Gove.
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, the Wolverines returned for the third period ready for battle and were able to tie the game 3-3 with goals from Christiano Aiello and Cohner Saleski.
After a scoreless overtime, the Wolverines were able to seal the deal in a shootout with goals from Teydon Trembecky and Chase Broda.
“I think for us, we came out and got into penalty trouble,” said Bobcats head coach and general manager Nigel Dube. “Any time you take repetitive penalties, whether they’re deserving or not, you give the other team life, and give the other team hope, and we did that as we went on.”
Halyk may not have been pleased with the game’s final score, but the rookie netminder stopped 38 or 41 shots during regulation, and his on-ice improvements haven’t gone unnoticed by Dube.
“Freddie’s continued to develop and continued to grow,” he said.
“Obviously he’s got a great role model in front of him with Kolby Thornton and for him to jump in there (tonight), he had some big saves, especially in the second, and kept us ahead there. He’s continued to grow throughout the year and we’re definitely going to need him on the stretch and into the future.”
“It took a couple of games to get used to, obviously it’s a lot faster than Midget, but I think I progressed a lot, and the Bobcats have helped me do that,” added Halyk, who spent last season with the Calgary Flames U18 AAA.
With Thornton and Halyk taking turns between the pipes, Dube noted “We have two solid goaltenders that give our guys confidence in front of them, for sure.”
