Regardless of whether they walked past the bouncy castle in the Hub parking lot Saturday, the Lloydminster Bobcats expected a bounce-back game from the Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
Read more: Bobcats beat MOB 4-2 in Hub home-opener
That was precisely the case as the Oil Barons shut out the Bobcats 4-0 just one night after Lloyd doubled Fort Mac 4-2 on Friday in the first official AJHL game at the city’s new arena, formally known as the Cenovus Energy Hub.
“We knew that they were going to come back hard tonight and push back, because of what happened last night,” Bobcats coach Eric Labrosse said after Saturday’s game. “So, we were expecting it, but we just came out flat, and unfortunately for us, it didn’t amount to much when we had a few chances offensively. We didn’t click on the power play. Everything, it kind of seemed like it wasn’t going our way tonight.”
Saturday’s AJHL game at the Hub turns into a testy affair. John MacNeil Meridian Source
It was that kind of a night for the Bobcats, who fell behind 2-0 on goals from Cody Nordstrom a minute into the game and Justin Dumais just 2:18 later.
“Yeah, we came in here knowing that we needed to bounce back, specifically getting shots on net and working hard in the O zone,” Dumais said.
“We were getting traffic at the net early and we succeeded. We played simple, we played with the lead, and we came out with the win.”
Griffin Gidney, on the power play, and Willem Terwoord added second-period goals as the Oil Barons kept the Bobcats at bay.
Logan Cunningham made 34 saves to post the shutout, while Sam Madgett recorded 21 stops in his second regular-season game as a Bobcat.
The Oil Barons weren’t necessarily distracted by the Hub’s big opening-night crowd Friday, but they seemed out of sync in that game.
The visitors were a decidedly more effective team one night later.
FIGHTING FORM
“I think we were trying out some new systems,” Dumais said about the season-opening setback. “It was our first game all playing together. We just had to look at that, and we approached the (second) game differently tonight. So, we changed a little bit of our systems out and we succeeded.”
The Bobcats tried to raise the tempo Saturday as hometown defenceman Jaxan Hopko threw a crushing hit in the first period and engaged in a third-period fight with Nordstrom, while Matthew Hikida later tangled with Oil Barons defenceman Jason Walia. Lloyd also fired 30-plus shots but couldn’t generate many prime scoring chances.
“(The Oil Barons) were executing more than last night, and they were actually first on pucks at times when we weren’t, and that was the whole difference,” Labrosse said Saturday.
“Last night, we were first on every puck. We were the ones pressuring them the whole game. They kind of did that to us tonight.
“We started off the game very slowly and it was a catchup game for us. The first five minutes, we’re already down by two goals. It’s always plays coming off defensive-zone faceoffs that we lose. We’re not ready to jump and block some shots or get into those lanes.
“We did have some better moments after … but we never really got around to having major scoring chances. It was that type of frustrating game that as much as we were trying, it seemed like nothing was clicking at one point. Then, they put in a few more, and that disallowed goal kind of took our legs from under us afterwards.”
The Bobcats had would-be goals called back in each of their first two games.
With the Oil Barons already in front 4-0 late in the second period Saturday, Hopko fired the puck past Cunningham, but the referees ruled there was goaltender interference on the play.
Labrosse didn’t want to comment on the officials’ calls, other than to say, “I might have a different opinion on what I saw tonight.”
With three new goalies on board for the early part of the season, the Bobcats elected to go with 18-year-old Madgett as he went the distance in both weekend games.
“He’s a first-year junior goaltender,” Labrosse said. “I wanted to give him that experience this weekend to see how he could do with it. We’ll re-evaluate this week what will be going on.”
The Oil Barons kept Madgett busier in Saturday’s game, scoring four goals on their first 15 shots.
“For sure, tonight he faced a lot more scoring chances against in our D zone than he did last night,” Labrosse said.
“Last night, we did a really good job of keeping them to the outside. Most of the shots were from the perimeter. Tonight, he had a bit more net-front traffic. On the first and third goals, they put some bodies in front to screen him.”
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Bobcats hit the road this weekend for three games in as many days — 7 p.m. Friday versus the Drumheller Dragons, 5 p.m. Saturday versus the Calgary Canucks and 2 p.m. Sunday against the Canmore Eagles.
“We’ve got to clean up a lot of things in our game, in our structure, that we thought was going well after the first game,” Labrosse said.
“But, evidently after the second game, was a bit exposed.”
The Bobcats have welcomed a new player this week in Tucker Robertson, an 18-year-old forwardwho spent the pre-season with the Trail Smoke Eaters of the BCHL.
“He should help us out here with the forward group,” Labrosse said of Robertson, schooled at British Columbia’s Okanagan Hockey Academy.
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