With 2,571 people in the stands, the Whitecourt Wolverines fell 4-2 to the Grande Prairie Storm on the road last night in game three of the AJHL semifinals.
The Storm opened the scoring in period one at 5:41 for a 1-0 lead.
Wolverine Alex Symes went to the box for tripping, but Grande Prairie failed to score on the powerplay.
The second frame saw Wolverine Brendan Ruskowski score his sixth of the playoffs at 9:01, with assistance from Parker Fitzgerald and Mason Russell to make it 1-1.
The Storm fired back at 13:52, however, to reclaim the lead 2-1.
Grande Prairie secured what turned out to be the game winner about three minutes into the third period to bump the score to 3-1.
Then, at 11:52, the Storm’s Matthew Lesyk earned a stack of penalties for roughing and misconduct, putting Whitecourt on an unsuccessful powerplay. The team got another chance four minutes later after Max Leduc was served a slew-footing minor, and Wolverine Nolan Schmidt found the mark to bring the score to 3-2. The helpers went to Spencer Claerhout and Brendan Ruskowski.
Whitecourt pulled netminder Elliott Pratt from the goal for the last minute of the game, and Grande Prairie secured an empty netter for a 4-2 victory.
Over the course of the game, Pratt saved 36 of 39 shots on goal.
The Storm now lead the seven-game semifinal series 2-1. Game four goes Wednesday night in Grande Prairie at 7 p.m.
