Although his Camrose Kodiaks won Friday’s game 4-3, former Lloydminster Bobcats defenceman Lucas Magowan’s homecoming contest in Lloyd turned out to be an abbreviated appearance at the Hub.
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Soon after the Kodiaks’ opening goal from Liam Payne just 10 seconds into the game, Magowan blocked a shot with his face and had to leave the ice for repairs.
“It was definitely exciting (beforehand), but pretty disappointing the way it went,” Magowan, 20, said about his Lloydminster return.
“The (second) shot in the game, I think, right in my face. Quite a bit (of blood). Not a great feeling.”
Magowan stopped the bleeding in the dressing room and, though his jaw was swollen, he attempted a comeback later in the first period. On his first shift back, he took a couple of heavy hits from some of his ex-teammates.
“I tried to go back (in the game) and it didn’t feel great,” he said. “Then, I kind of waited around in my gear for a little bit. Just made the call after that (to call it a night).”
This week, Magowan reported that’s he ready to make a comeback, after sitting out the Kodiaks’ 2-1 loss to the Bobcats in Saturday’s rematch at Camrose.
“Nothing is broken, which is good,” he said Tuesday. “I will be playing (Wednesday), but I have to wear a cage.”
After his shortened Friday stint, Magowan watched the rest of the Hub action from upstairs.
“We’re just a pretty fast, offensive team,” he said about the Kodiaks in a post-game interview. “So, I think that kind of helped us out tonight. We scored a couple of goals. I didn’t see them all.”
One of them came from newcomer Brandon de Haas, the 19-year-old forward acquired from the Grande Prairie Storm during the trade period. Reily Pickford, an 18-year-old defenceman from Chauvin, Alta., went to Grande Prairie in that deal.
Magowan was dealt to Camrose in the early November trade that saw Lloydminster gain the CJHL playing rights to 19-year-old forward A.J. Schaff, a former Kodiak now playing in the BCHL with the Chilliwack Chiefs.
Going into this Wednesday’s game against the Whitecourt Wolverines, Magowan had eight points, including seven assists, after 33 games with Camrose and Lloyd this season.
“It felt like I was playing pretty well in Camrose,” he said before his brief setback last weekend. “I was playing a lot of minutes. A couple of older guys were injured, too, on the back end, so I played quite a bit because of that. It was really good.”
After Friday’s game, he caught up with his former billets, the family of Bobcats’ business manager Mallory Oleshko.
Before the game, Magowan eyed a few ex-teammates during the warm-up. “Just some smiles (exchanged),” he said. “Nothing too crazy. I didn’t get to chat with them much.”
He gave his scouting report on the new-look Bobcats, who beefed up at the deadline.
“They look fast, still,” said Magowan, five-foot-eight and 150 pounds. “Pretty big on the back end, too. I think that’s probably the biggest change from when I was there.”
Magowan was in the Kodiaks’ starting lineup Friday. He dumped the puck into the Bobcats’ zone on the play that led to Payne’s early goal, on which Lloyd goalie Ty Matonovich’s clearing attempt from behind his net went awry.
Raphael Messier and Alex Levasseur each scored a goal and an assist for Lloyd. Levasseur and Kade Fendelet, with a power-play marker at 16:37, tallied 51 seconds apart in the final five minutes to narrow the gap in Camrose’s one-goal win.
Carter Capton blocked 30 shots for the Kodiaks, who registered 27 shots against Matonovich.
Tucker Tullikopf scored back-to-back second-period goals, one of them during the five-minute power play that ensued after Bobcats forward Matthew Hikida’s hit against Miles Copeland.
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