Copperheads split weekend game in Heritage league play

By Garrett Simmons
Sunny South News

It was a two-game split for the Coaldale Copperheads on the weekend in Heritage Junior “B” Hockey League play.

Coaldale opened the weekend with a huge 9-7 win on Friday over Medicine Hat and dropped a 5-4 contest on Saturday against Cochrane.

Saturday featured a high-scoring affair as the Copperheads raced out to a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Peyton Twigg and Rylan Bruns. Kale Amundrud, Caden Heins and Griffin McCulloch drew assists on the first two goals.

The Cubs struck back to make it 2-1 before Bruns connected on a Kaden Lazar feed to extend the lead to two goals once again. But the Hat added a goal with 52 seconds left in the first to narrow the advantage to 3-2.

Coaldale regained the two-goal lead early in the second, as Derrien Tonin scored on the powerplay, as Burns and Nathan Verloop drew the assists.

The lead was short-lived, as Medicine Hat scored three straight and took a 5-4 lead. Tonin tied it up with another goal on the PP, assisted by Nolan Price and Krishan Stocker, as the teams went to the dressing room tied at five.

The teams traded goals to start the third, as Heins scored on the powerplay, on a goal assisted by Price and Stocker before the Cubs tied it at six.

But Coaldale took over from there, as McCulloch converted a feed from Stocker, Constant scored an unassisted marker and Twigg made it 9-6 with a goal assisted by Heins and R.J. Loo.

Nixon Ordway took the win in goal, as the Coaldale puck stopper made 33 saves on 40 shots.

Saturday’s game against the Cochrane Generals was another back-and-forth affair, as Stocker and Constant gave Coaldale a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Cochrane scored the game’s only goal in the second, and then added three more in the third to take a 5-2 advantage. Constant and Tonin scored late goals for the Copperheads to draw Coaldale within one, but that was as close as the home side could get.

Aside from the goal scorers, McCulloch and Lazar had two assists each, while Loo, Price Tonin and Bruns added one helper each.

Aidan Low was in goal for the Copperheads and made 37 stops on 42 shots.

With the January schedule now in the rearview mirror, Coaldale prepares for the team’s last four games of the regular season. The Copperheads host Medicine Hat Saturday at 8 p.m., then hit the road Sunday against Cochrane,

Coaldale wraps the 2022/2023 regular season the following weekend with games against High River and Okotoks.

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