By Robb Fenton
The Lloydminster Bobcats continue to be one of the hottest teams in the AJHL and it couldn’t come at a better time.
This past weekend, the ‘Cats took five of six points on a three-game road trip that saw them beat Grande Prairie 3-1 and 4-1 Friday and Saturday and end the weekend with a 2-1 shootout loss to Spruce Grove.
Bobcats head coach Brian Curran said the start of the first game wasn’t very pretty, but after that, the team played near perfect hockey.
“In the first game, the first two periods I thought we played horrible. We got up a goal, our goaltending was really strong and in the third period we really showed up,” Curran said. “From that point on, we played with a lot of emotion. We played much better in the second game from start to finish and didn’t allow much of anything.
“Spruce Grove, I thought we deserved a much better fate. We played a very good team, but I thought we limited them to very few scoring chances in that game. We played hard,” Curran added.
The Bobcats now sit in third place in the North Division with a record of 33-10-6, good for 72 points.
And the team has been impressive in their last 10 games, going 7-2-1.
All that being said, the team will head into two home games Thursday and Friday not thinking about the stats, their record or where they are in the standings.
Matt Marcinew, who had two goals on the Saturday said the Bobcats have a pretty good idea of what to expect when they hit the ice against Drayton Valley Thursday and Grande Prairie Friday.
“For GP, they have a lot of speed up front and they have a couple big D-men. But I think if we can get to their goalie, like any other team, we’ll have success there,” he said. “And Drayton Valley, they have a good goaltender and they have a lot of skill up front. They have skilled forwards who can score on the power play, so we’ll definitely have to watch out for their power play.”
Bobcats defenceman Morgan Eaton, who scored his first AJHL goal during Saturday’s win, said his team shut down two strong offensive teams by just playing disciplined hockey, sticking to their systems and working together as a unit.
“We were playing physical down low, we were separating the man from the puck and getting the puck up to our winger. Our wingers were doing a good job getting it out after that,” Eaton explained.
Grande Prairie shouldn’t’ surprise the Bobcats as the two teams will meet for the third time in a week, but the ‘Cats haven’t faced Drayton Valley in some time, since Nov. 23, so they’ll need to be sharp to pick up a win.
“I think Fran (Gow) has done a good job. He demands a lot out of his players so they’re going to work hard and traditionally they’ve been a physical team,” Curran said. “They’re a dangerous team because they’re a Fran Gow team. He gets the boys to play whatever role they have to play to be successful.”
The ‘Cats will entertain Drayton Valley Thursday and Grande Prairie Friday at the Civic Centre.
Both games start at 7:30 p.m.