Stettler Lightning brought out one of their best games as they hit the ice on Friday evening, Sept. 22 against Three Hills Thrashers, beating them 5-2.
Scoring in the first minute of the game, unassisted was Stettler’s Dylan Houston, and even though Three Hills equalled the score in the first period, the Lightning had their momentum going.
In the second period, Mark Bengert scored the second goal, followed by teammates Erik Rost, Dylan Houston, and Brendan Bardwell, almost sealing Thrashers fate with 5-1 on the scoreboard going into the third period.
Thrashers tried to make a comeback in the final stretch with a lone goal in the third period, but with Lightning not letting up, the final score was 5-2.
“We had a good weekend of hockey starting with our home opener on Friday against Three Hills,” said Head Coach Rory Rost. “We came out strong in the first period and had nine shots on net in the first five minutes, but lost a little momentum after taking a penalty later in the period.”
Lightning outshot Three Hills about 50-25.
”The boys could have scored more goals than we did, but the win was great, we had a large crowd and the atmosphere was great,” Rost said. “I think we can still play much better than we did, but it was a good start to the year.”
Lightning lose to Red Deer Vipers
Travelling to Red Deer the following day, Lightning was unable to keep up with the same performance, and ended up losing 8-4 to the home team.
Both teams were tied at the end of the first period 3-3, with Stettler’s Kieran Rost scoring two goals, and Dylan Houston one. But, the second period the Vipers’ strategy worked with them surging ahead 5-3. The third period was quite the “disaster” for Lightning as Vipers scored three more goals, and even though Houston scored a fourth goal for Stettler, it wasn’t enough.
Coach Rory said that the Vipers were a mature team, having won the league and provincials last year, so they suspected it would be a tougher game.
“Their power play is strong and it looked to be in mid-season form, but other than that, I think we can compete with them on any given night,” Rory added. “Overall we were happy with the effort this weekend, and look forward to our game this upcoming weekend in Medicine Hat.”