On the road last night, the Whitecourt Wolverines beat the Drayton Valley Thunder 5-2.
The Thunder’s Nathan Cole opened the scoring in period one to make it 1-0 after 20 minutes.
In the second frame, Drayton Valley’s Caedem Emmett followed that up with a powerplay goal to bump the team to a 2-0 lead after Whitecourt’s Quentin Bourne earned a minor for delaying the game.
Then, Wolverine Jackson DeGraves fired back with an unassisted, shorthanded goal 2:30 later, as Bourne was back in the box again for tripping, to make it 2-1.
At 6:06, Drayton’s Taynton Lavender earned a tripping minor, giving Whitecourt’s Spencer Claerhout a chance to score on the powerplay and tie it 2-2. Nolan Schmidt and Ty Rayan assisted.
Later, with support from Brendan Ruskowski, Nolan Schmidt netted one more for Whitecourt before the end of the frame, putting them ahead 3-2.
The third period saw the Wolverines Spencer Claerhout and Jalen Bianchet both score to secure the 5-2 victory.
Assisted by Braden Nienaber and Jackson DeGraves at 6:15, Claerhout scored his third of the season on a powerplay. Then, Bianchet secured an empty-netter at 19:38, his 44th of the season, with the helper going to Tyler Pretty.
In the AJHL North Division, the Whitecourt Wolverines are now three points ahead of the second-place Grande Prairie Storm, with a record of 34-11-1-2.
