On Halloween night Friday, Noah Smith dressed up as a Lloydminster Bobcat for the first time since last February.
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He did so again Saturday when he emptied his bag of treats and scored his first career AJHL goal to help the Bobcats win for the second time in as many nights and improve their record to 10-6.
It was that kind of a weekend for Smith as he finally returned from off-season shoulder surgery and the rugged road of rehabilitation.
“It feels good,” said Smith, whose first-period goal contributed to Lloydminster’s 6-2 victory over the visiting Drumheller Dragons at the Cenovus Energy Hub.
“It’s been a long, long nine months. I think it was 254 days, to be exact. It was a challenge. But it was super nice to get back out there with the guys.”
The view from the Hub’s Section R was getting old for Smith, an 18-year-old defenceman from Brooks, Alta.
“Yeah, it was getting really frustrating to be there, watching the guys,” he said. “It was nice to get back in the room, be a part of the team and contribute to the boys.”
Those boys were all enthused after Smith capitalized on a Drumheller turnover and fired the puck from near the Dragons’ blueline, through a crowd and past starting goaltender Sean Cootes to put the Bobcats ahead 2-0 early.
Smith’s unassisted goal came before the five-minute mark and 1:14 after fellow defenceman Jaxan Hopko had scored from similar range.
Lloydminster went up 4-0 on power-play goals from veterans Kade Fendelet and Gus El-Tahhan just 1:18 apart midway through the first period, chasing Cootes from the Drumheller net in favour of Brandon Williams.
The Bobcats also got third-period goals from Quinn Smith and Esteban Cinq-Mars, the third Lloyd defenceman to score Saturday. Jadon Iyogun bagged three assists to give him 14 points, including a team-high nine goals, in 13 games.
Matthew Hikida, with assists on both power-play goals, pushed his team-leading total to 16 points in 16 games.
Allen Sherpa netted both Dragons’ goals against Ben Polhill, who made 28 saves to register his second victory in two nights. The Bobcats directed 26 shots toward Cootes and Williams.
Polhill recorded a 21-save shutout Friday as the Bobcats blanked the Drayton Valley Thunder 3-0. It was the first AJHL shutout for the 19-year-old Polhill.
Iyogun, on the power play, Morgan Hackman and Kael Screpnek scored in that Halloween game.
The Bobcats posted 40 shots as Thunder goaltender Archer Cooke kept the score closer than it might have been otherwise.
Lloydminster rookie forward Luke Dooley had an assist in each of the two weekend victories to give him five points in the past five games. His nifty backhanded pass set up Hackman’s winning goal Friday.
Dooley’s hard-working line, including Hackman and Ethan Elefante, pressured the Dragons’ defence in the giveaway sequence that led to the historic Noah Smith goal Saturday.
“It was kind of a pizza (offering) right up the middle,” Smith said with a smile. “Then, I just got it, walked a little bit, saw a screen and just ripped ’er. Fortunately, it went bar down, so it was nice.
“For a second, I thought (Dooley) tipped it.”
Dooley went on to retrieve the memento puck from the Drumheller net, while Lloydminster players on and off the ice shouted in celebration of Smith’s milestone.
Adding to his special night, Smith’s mother was in town for her son’s comeback weekend.
After his late April surgery, the Brooks boy returned to Lloyd in time for training camp in early September, but he had to wait until late October to be cleared to play.
“I was kind of playing it week by week,” he said. “I headed back to Calgary to see my orthopedic surgeon. He kind of gave me a date and we just went from there, based on the feel.
“It was long, it was rough, but I did everything I could to get it back healthy. Now, we’re back here, playing again.
“It’s feeling good. Today was a little bit rough. I took a little bit (of time) off in the third, but for the most part, it felt good to get back out there.”
Considering he broke his back when he played U15 prep, it’s telling when Smith describes his latest setback as his most impactful hockey injury, at least the first one that necessitated surgery.
“When my shoulder dislocated, it completely tore my labrum from inside the shoulder socket,” Smith said. “So, they reconstructed my labrum and then they did a remplissage procedure, which means they essentially stretched my rotator cuff muscle out and screwed it into the top of my humerus bone in the shoulder joint, which will help stop my shoulder from dislocating again. You can kind of see where the incisions were.”
Now, you can also see a goal listed in Smith’s AJHL statistics, which had included three assists (and 69 penalty minutes) in 27 games as a rookie with the Bobcats last season.
“It felt really nice,” he said about his first junior A tally. “It was nice to get that one off my chest. Yeah, the boys were excited.”
As he regains full stride, the six-foot, 180-pound Smith hopes to be able to continue playing his customary physical game.
“I know my role,” he said. “I know why I’m here. I’m here because of my aggressive play style. I’m a defensive defenceman who can lay the body and do whatever I can in the D zone.”
The Bobcats’ organization shared in the relief and joy that accompanied Smith’s return.
“Super excited for the kid,” GM Nigel Dube said Saturday. “I don’t think you could wipe the smile off his face yesterday. It was nine months or so for him to get from start to finish.
“He’s a kid that works hard and does everything right. A big body on the back end. When he and (Brady) Gamble are on the ice together, we can call those guys the Twin Towers back there.”
Smith came to Lloydminster in 2024 after three seasons with the U15, U17 and U18 prep teams at RINK Hockey Academy in Kelowna, B.C.
He was a sixth-round draft choice of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders in 2022. His brother Cage, a forward turning 17 in December, plays major junior with the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings.
The Smith boys were teammates at RINK, most recently with a U18 prep team that included Lloyd newcomer Hackman and prominent hockey names like Joe Iginla and Keaton Verhoeff. Their coach was Iginla’s father, Jarome, of NHL fame.
Before the Smith brothers headed to British Columbia to play prep school hockey, they had a front-row seat to the perennial junior A powerhouse Brooks Bandits, then of the AJHL and now of the BCHL.
While the Bandits were shooting for national championships during Noah Smith’s childhood, he remembers chumming with dynamic defenceman Cale Makar, now an NHL star with the Colorado Avalanche.
“We were at every game,” Smith said. “I was young, but we got some good pictures with (Makar). Even a few hangouts with him and my buddy.
“My buddy used to billet, and their billet (house) was kind of the hangout area, so when I was over there, they were all around. It was a pretty cool experience. It was incredible to watch (Makar) go through those years.”
Now that he’s back on the ice, Smith is banking on making his own junior A memories with a contending Lloydminster team showing well early.
The Bobcats are on the road for two games this weekend. They play the Bonnyville Pontiacs (7-7) for the first time this season Friday night and face the Devon Xtreme (5-6-1) for the fourth occasion this year Saturday evening.
On home ice last weekend, Bonnyville scored a 5-2 victory over Drumheller (7-7-2) and a 4-3 overtime win over Drayton Valley (5-7-2).
The Pontiacs visit Lloyd on Friday, Nov. 14.
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