by Morinville News Staff
After a three-point opening weekend that saw an OT loss to the Stony Plain Flyers and a subsequent win over the Beverly Warriors, the Morinville Jets hit the ice Friday night against the Edmonton Mustangs for their third game of the season and their second on home ice.
The Jets toppled the Mustangs 5-3 to bring their earlier season record to 2-0-1 with five points in three games.
Outside of an empty net goal with five seconds left in the game, half of the Jets’ tally was earned on the power play, something the club struggled to capitalize on last year.
Although the Mustangs opened scoring midway through the opening frame to lead 1-0, the Jets answered back with two before the buzzer, one from Michael Wolosyhn andTyler Hagel and a powerplay contribution from Craig Hills and Jorden Rooke, to lead the period 2-1.
The middle frame saw nothing lighting the board with both clubs racking up a pair of penalties during the frame.
The third period had both clubs pocketing one in alternate volleys. Brett Dubuc, assisted by Tyler Hagel and Taylor Holterhus brought the game to 3-1 in the Jets’ favour, but this gap was narrowed to 3-2 with less than 10 minutes left in the game.
The Jets came back to push it further away from an OT chance for the Mustangs at 2:39 with a powerplay goal from Brett Dubuc, assisted by Tyler Hagel and Michael Wolosyhn.
Leading 4-2, the Mustangs answered back a few seconds after the puck drop to narrow it to 4-3.
Hoping to drive the contest to overtime, the Mustangs pulled their backstop, allowing Tyler Hagel to pocket an empty-netter with five seconds left on the clock.
The Jets play twice this week. The club faces the North Edmonton Red Wings in a mid-week contest at Londonderry Arena Wednesday night and hit the Akinsdale rink Friday night to face the St. Albert Merchants.
See MorinvilleNews.com for results during the week or next week’s sports page in our weekly print edition.
