They came, they played, they conquered.
The Barrhead Steelers upped their performance over the weekend to take two home-game wins against Whitecourt Midget A and the Rocky Royals.
Friday night the boys played Whitecourt. The first period remained scoreless until just under five minutes left, when Barrhead’s Jordan Smith landed the first goal of the game.
The Steelers continued to play hard in period two. Smith was on fire, scoring a second goal just three minutes in, assisted by Brett Bujold.
With the score at 2-0, Whitecourt began to fight back. Only a minute later, Barrhead was bested by their opponents and Whitecourt put the score at 2-1.
The action didn’t stop there. Mere minutes later Barrhead player Jordan Smith, assisted by Danny Dekker, joined in the scoring action to widen the gap to 3-1.
Whitecourt attacked again, scoring another five minutes later.
The score board showed 3-2, and the second period action wasn’t finished yet. With cheers from the crowd, the Steelers took one last goal before the final period when Dekker slipped the puck into the net, assisted by Smith and Bujold.
Heading into period three, Barrhead was leading 4-2. Though both teams attempted to score again, it wasn’t until less than a minute before the end of the game that the puck hit a net.
At 42 seconds remaining, Steelers player Zak Laun shot and landed the final goal of the game, assisted by Eric Schmidt. The Steelers left the ice with a 5-2 win.
Friday night may have been exciting, but Sunday afternoon the Steelers played a highly competitive and action-packed game against the Rocky Royals.
The Steelers started off strong, dominating the first period. Bujold scored the game’s first goal five minutes in, assisted by Brad Bujold and Schmidt.
Barrhead played hard offensively, with Laun scoring on a power play at five minutes left in the first.
The second period seemed to be in favour of the Royals, when Barrhead wasn’t able to stop a goal three minutes in.
With the score at 2-1, the Steelers stepped up their game again and worked to widen the gap. Nic Murrell, assisted by Koby Adams and Nathan Schmidt, scored one for Barrhead to put the score at 3-1.
However the Rocky Royals would have the final shot in the second, when they scored at the two minute mark.
Going into the third period, the score sat at 3-2. Barrhead came out aggressively, Adams scoring only two minutes in, assisted by Murrell and Perdaems.
The Royals retaliated hard, landing their own goal to put the score at 4-3. But Barrhead wasn’t ready to see a tie game.
With 23 seconds left, Brad shot and scored the last goal of the game. Assisted by Smith and Brett, the game ended with a score of 5-3.
Assistant coach Wayne Branden said the Steelers greatly picked up their game over the weekend, and played better than they have in a while.
“We’ve been struggling the last few games. Not playing positions,” said Branden.
“We played a little better positions this weekend.”
The boys are sitting at second in the league currently. This coming weekend they will again face the Rocky Royals Friday night. Sunday afternoon, Barrhead faces off against Innisfail, the first place team.
“We would probably take first place if we beat them,” said Branden. “It’s a big game.”
For the first time in several years, the Barrhead Steelers are putting on a bacon fundraiser. A 5.5kg box is $50. Anyone interested can contact any of the Barrhead Steelers players.
