The Lloydminster Bobcats have added yet another goaltender to their Alberta Junior Hockey League roster.
Read more: Bobcats net two more wins, add 20-year-old goaltender
Jaiden Sharma, 20, joined the Bobcats from the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles and played in both road losses last weekend against the two teams at the bottom of the AJHL’s South Division.
In his debut Friday, Sharma went the distance and stopped 28 shots as Lloyd lost 2-1 in overtime to the Drayton Valley Thunder.
Ex-Bobcat Daniel Zhou, with his seventh goal this season, scored the winner with 33 seconds left in the extra period. He has 17 points in as many games this year.
On Saturday, the Bobcats fell 5-4 against the league’s last-place Olds Grizzlys. Sharma started that game, but he gave way to Ty Matonovich early in the second period after giving up four goals on 16 shots. Matonovich then stopped 15 of 16 shots, although he was tagged with the loss.
Ayaan Vira, with his first AJHL goal, netted the winner late in the second when he broke a 4-4 tie.
The Bobcats’ Quinn Smith had scored the previous two goals in short-handed and power-play situations, respectively, and he posted three points overall. Luke Dooley added a goal and an assist, Gus El-Tahhan scored, and Kael Screpnek assisted on two goals.
The Bobcats fired 34 shots at Grizzlys goalie Connor Johnson. Olds, which welcomed new defencemen Owen Hutzul and Aaron Sawatzky, got goals from five players.
In Friday’s game at Drayton Valley, Lloydminster captain Kade Fendelet scored in the final minute of the third period to force overtime.
Will Jamieson had put the Thunder on the scoreboard just 1:35 into the game.
Archer Cooke blocked 31 of the 32 shots that he faced in Drayton Valley’s net.
The OT loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Lloyd (15-8-2), which is second in the North Division, five points behind the Whitecourt Wolverines (18-7-1) and one ahead of thethird-place Fort McMurray Oil Barons (13-8-5).
Lloyd’s game scheduled for this Wednesday at Grande Prairie was postponed, but the Bobcats and Storm are still slated to face each other Friday and Saturday in the northern Alberta city.
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