The three-game weekend once again did not go off as well as it was expected for the Bolts, but they are not resting on their failures or their laurels as they pulled off a great win of 9-3 against the Banff Bears on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 23.
Coming from a 2-0 deficit, the Bolts were determined to make it count in the third game as they moved from strength to strength, finally taking the game 9-3, annihilating the Bears.
Their first game on Friday, Oct. 21 against Three Hills Thrashers went off uneventfully, even though the Bolts lost, they did so graciously with a 2-0 setback at the end of the game.
Lightning's game against Red Deer Vipers on Saturday, Oct. 22 in Red Deer also bore no fruit as they lost in a shootout.
Although rookies Bengert and Quade Cassidy made their impact felt throughout the game, they were unable to hold back the Vipers back in the shootout.
Jordan McCallum had 29 saves in the game, but was one short in the shootout.
But the team that went into the game on Sunday was a determined and focused one.
"I'm happy with the weekend. We issued a challenge to our entire group after the game on Friday to get back to respecting the process and doing the little things right and I thought we responded really well in Red Deer and at home against Banff," said Head Coach Gavin Brandl. "We also got a few elements of our game going that we have been missing at times, namely some really timely saves from Jordy and our power play."
Brandl added that the Bolts "tweaked the power play" to their advantage.
"We tweaked our power play setup a little bit and the results seemed to turn in our favour so we will look to keep working on that and pushing our skill level as individuals so that we can capitalize on those chances," explained Brandl.
With two goals scored each in the first and third periods and five in the second period, Lightning firmly enscoced their strong position in the game against the Bears.
Dylan Houston and Matt Sylvester scored two goals each, with the rest being scored by Brendan Bardwell, Logan Davidson, Ethan Rost, Levi Fisher and Kieran Rost.