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Lightning triumph over Three Hills, neck-to-neck against Vipers

Stettler led a charged game against Three Hills on Sunday, Dec. 17, scoring four of the nine goals in the first period with the final...
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Stettler’s Kieran Rost guides the puck away from opponent Red Deer Vipers on Tuesday

Stettler led a charged game against Three Hills on Sunday, Dec. 17, scoring four of the nine goals in the first period with the final score 9-5.

Even though Three Hills scored the first goal, Lightning came back full throttle scoring four consecutive goals, taking the score to 4-1. Among the scorers were Donovan Granger, Quade Cassidy, Matt Sylvester and Logan Davidson.

With another two goals in the second period from Cassidy and Dylan Houston, the Bolts had sealed the Thrashers' fate, at least in this game.

By the end of the second period Lightning was up 6-3.

Determined to finish off the weekend with a convincing win, Houston led the charge in the third period, scoring his second and third goals, which took the Lightning to 8-3.

Concerted efforts from Thrashers had the score move to 8-5 eventually, but Davidson netted the puck just one more time, as the Bolts rode a clean victory home.

"We really like the way our game is trending right now," said a very content Head Coach Gavin Brandl. "Particularly on the offensive end, in all three games this week it was nice to see pucks going in the net."

Bolts win one, lose one to Vipers

The Bolts were well on their way to straighten out the battle of the puck with Red Deer Vipers, winning the first game on Tuesday, Dec. 13 with a 5-3 victory.

Lightning's Kieran Rost and Dylan Houston scored in the first period, with Braydon Whiteford and Quade Cassidy following suit in the second.

Going into the third period, although the Bolts were up 4-3, Matt Sylvester scored the fifth goal to ensure that there was never an equalizer coming in anytime soon.

As the Bolts took their winning confidence to the second game against Vipers on Friday, Dec. 16, the results showed.

The Lightning scored the first three goals and looked invincible with 3-0, but the Vipers made a comeback scoring two goals in the first period and the only goal in the second period, equalizing the Bolts.

In the third period at 3-3, the Bolts shot ahead with Brendan Bardwell's goal, but once again the Vipers came back scoring two back-to-back goals, suddenly getting an edge for the first time in the game of 5-4.

The Bolts fought hard and were able to score an equalizer, resulting in a shootout, which Lightning lost.

"When you look at the two games against Red Deer, we beat them 10-8 in 125 minutes of hockey," said Brandl. "The only thing they beat us in was the skills competition to wrap it up."

With Lightning getting ready to face Airdrie in a home game this Friday, Brandl is quite happy with how his players have performed so far.

"So we come away from those two games feeling pretty good about ourselves, and then against Three Hills we made sure to play at our level and not drop down to theirs," Brandl added. "It sounds like a pretty simple concept but I really think it's a key part of being a contender, you play the same game and play it well whether you are up against the first place team or the last place team. It's good to see us sitting on the right side of .500, I think we are starting to heat up at the perfect time."

Stettler Lightning will play Airdrie on Friday, Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Stettler Recreation Centre.