The Whitecourt Wolverines split a pair of home games over the weekend, dropping a 6-3 decision to Drumheller on Friday, but doubling Lloydminster 6-3 on Saturday.
Friday night’s game saw Whitecourt’s Jalen Bianchet score the opening goal just 41 seconds into the first period. It was his 38th of the season with Billy Hooson and Xander Schulte picking up the assists.
The Dragons Jensen Marsh would later tie it up 1-1 before the period came to an end.
The second period saw Drumheller score the next two goals, both on the powerplay, to go up 3-1, before Whitecourt scored back-to-back goals of their own to tie it back up 3-3.
The Wolverines goals came from Xander Schulte who scored his seventh of the season, on the powerplay, with assists from Cole Barrett and Jager Gugyelka. As well as Braden Nienaber who scored his third of the season, thanks to help from Ty Rayan and Kyle Tucker.
The third period was all Dragons, however, as they scored three unanswered goals in the final frame, including a powerplay marker at 16:31, to make it a 6-3 final.
Between the pipes, Wolverines netminder Preston Lewis stopped 28 of 34 shots on goal, while Dragons goaltender Sean Cootes stopped 26 of 29.
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Saturday’s game saw a similar result, but with the Wolverines picking up the two points this time.
After Lloydminster opened the scoring at 10:43 of the first period, the Wolverines scored back-to-back goals at 11:02 and 15:57, to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Wolverine goals came from Brendan Ruskowski, who scored his 21st of the season with help from Xander Schulte and Tristan Slywka, as well as Nolan Schmidt, with assists from Quentin Bourne and Kyle Tucker.
Both teams each scored two goals in the second period, with Whitecourt’s Brendan Ruskowski scoring his second of the game and 22nd of the season at 1:42, on the powerplay, with Quentin Bourne and Jalen Bianchet assisting on the goal.
Following two goals from the Bobcats, Ruskowski then scored his third of the game and 23rd of the season at 17:57 to make it 4-3 after two periods. Tristan Slywka and Xander Schulte picked up the assists on Ruskowki’s hattrick goal.
The Wolverines would put the game away in the third period, however, as Quentin Bourne scored his eighth of the season at 2:58 on the powerplay, with help from Ty Rayan and Braden Nienaber, to make it 5-3.
Nolan Schmidt scored the final goal of the game at 4:38, on the power play, with assists coming from Spencer Claerhout and Braden Nienaber to make it a 6-3 final.
Between the pipes, Wolverines netminder Elliott Pratt stopped 28 of 31 shots on goal, while Bobcats goaltender Ty Matonovich stopped 41 of 47.
