It was an all-too-familiar finish for the Lloydminster Lancers as they relinquished a 4-1 third-period lead and lost 6-5 in overtime to the visiting St. Albert Raiders on Saturday afternoon at the Cenovus Energy Hub.
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For the second time in as many home games this season, the U18 AAA Lancers were forced to settle for an Alberta Elite Hockey League point. Two weeks earlier, they also ran into late penalty trouble and fell 5-4 in OT to the Sherwood Park Kings on Oct. 5.
Discipline was again an issue Saturday as Lloyd allowed St. Albert to score four straight third-period goals, two of them on power plays, and gain a 5-4 lead with eight minutes left in regulation time.
FAMILIAR FACES
Less than two minutes later, a couple of Lancers on a mission combined to force overtime as St. Albert native Ty Domshy set up Kitscoty kid Brody Sunderland, who played U15 AAA in St. Albert last season. Sunderland, with his second goal of the season, had a two-point afternoon, while Domshy’s three-point game included two goals against his hometown team.
Jadon Fischer, with his fourth goal of the game and ninth of the young season, scored 1:46 into overtime to complete the comeback victory for the Raiders (4-1-3).
After another tough finish against an upper-echelon team, the Lancers (1-5-2) went right back to work on the road Sunday. Lloyd was still buzzing around the Fort Saskatchewan net as the final buzzer sounded and the North Division-leading Rangers (6-2-1) pulled out a 4-3 win.
At home Saturday, the Lancers fired 40 shots and scored five goals against St. Albert goaltender Seth Badry in his U18 debut, but they let the game slip away in the third period.
‘TOO MANY PENALTIES’
“The first two periods were pretty good,” said Domshy, the Lancers’ top goal-scorer and an assistant captain in his first Lloydminster season. “We were hard on them. We were up 4-1. Just fell asleep in the third. Too many penalties.
It cost us the game.”
It’s clear the rebuilding Lancers are a better team than their record might indicate, but they’re struggling to find a way to finish the job.
“The first two periods, I thought we dominated play,” Lloydminster coach Chris King said after Saturday’s game. “You could see that in the shots and the score. The third period, I thought we made some really undisciplined plays. We were in the box four times in the third period. Whether we thought they were penalties or not, they’re penalties. And that really took a lot of energy out of us, just killing so much.
“Great job by the guys to tie it back up at 5-5. And then, in overtime, an unlucky play at the blueline and that’s how she goes.
“These guys are still learning those lessons of being consistent. I thought today, for two periods, we were the much better team, and then the third period we weren’t.”
Lloyd forwards Logan Flewell and Josh Frazer each scored their second goals of the season during Saturday’s game. Flewell and fellow veteran Rhett Romanchuk collected two points apiece, while rookie Locklin Mitchell recorded his first U18 point before picking up three of the Lancers’ four minor penalties in the third period.
Asher Ammann faced 43 shots as he again came close to earning his first regular-season victory between the Lancer pipes.
St. Albert capitalized on three power plays, with two goals from Fischer and one from Lucah Lamb. Kai Richards also tallied for the Raiders, while Asher Halliday, Jett Toma and Ethan Classen supplied four, three and two assists, respectively.
Both teams had their moments in Saturday’s matchup.
“It’s just unfortunate for our guys to get the overtime loss,” King said.
“We get a point out of it, but as I said to the boys, I’m not convinced us winning in overtime (would mean) we learned any lessons from the third. Because then it’s like, ‘We won the game, that’s great,’ but all of those (mistakes were committed) — bad pinches, bad penalties, not tying up on the draws — so we’ve got to learn those the hard way. We’re definitely learning the hard way right now.”
PARTIAL LINEUPS
Lloydminster and St. Albert were both missing key personnel, because of injuries and the participation of top U16 players in the WHL Cup last weekend at Red Deer.
In the Lancers’ case, versatile Aiden Harman was out for the weekend with a hip injury, while young gun Tripp Fischer was part of bronze-medal-winning Team Alberta at the WHL Cup.
The 15-year-old Fischer, a Lloydminster product, was an assistant captain with Alberta. He had just returned to action the previous weekend, after suffering a high-ankle sprain in the pre-season.
“I’m happy that he played a couple of games for us before he went to the WHL Cup, so he got his feet wet,” King said of Fischer.
“We look forward to having Tripp back in our group. It just sorts everything out. Today, playing with 10 forwards instead of 12 gassed us a lot on the penalty kill.
“And hopefully, Harms gets back from his injury as well. We’re hoping it’s just a week, but maybe two weeks. It just depends. With hips and hip flexors, you never know.”
Harman, a natural defenceman from Meadow Lake, was moved up front as the Lancers’ roster took shape early this season.
“In our tryout camp, our roster wasn’t really set till the last weekend,” King said. “(Dalin) Hannah came to us on the second tryout, and he played well enough to earn a spot in our group, which led us to keeping seven D.
“So, what we’ve done is converted Harman to a forward, for right now, because he does have an offensive toolkit, and it allows us to have someone that can jump back on D if we need that. It changed our roster dynamic at the very last minute.”
Harman, 16, joined the Lancers this summer after multiple seasons in the Lloydminster Athletics’ program.
WORTHY ROAD EFFORT
Despite going against a first-place team on the road Sunday at Fort Saskatchewan, the Lancers battled until the dying seconds as they tried to even the score, with goaltender Stran Edge on the bench in favour of an extra skater.
Domshy had cut the Rangers’ lead to 4-3 with seven minutes remaining.
For the second straight game, Paradise Valley’s Flewell opened the scoring, this time converting a Frazer rebound.
Fort Sask took a 3-1 lead in the second period, before Kitscoty’s Gavin Pratt broke in alone to score his third goal of the year and make it a one-goal game.
Edge made 20 saves for Lloydminster. His teammates directed 31 shots toward the Rangers’ Kayd Mercier, who posted his fourth win in five games. Domshy has nine points, including the Lancers’ team-high five goals.
Romanchuk — the Lancers’ captain and junior A Lloydminster Bobcats’ defence prospect — is among three players leading the Lancers with 10 points each. The others are sophomore forward Connor Nickle and rookie centre Sunderland.
Lloydminster is at home for its next four games, including a pair of Hub dates this weekend. The Lancers host the Edmonton Junior Oilers Orange (2-2-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 1) and the Lethbridge Hurricanes (1-6-2) at 2 p.m. Sunday.
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