Copperheads see winning streak snapped with loss to Sylvan Lake

By Garrett Simmons
Sunny South News

All good things must come to an end.

For the Coaldale Copperheads, that old statement proved true last weekend, as the team’s lengthy winning streak, and an undefeated month of November, fizzled out in a 3-2 loss on Saturday to the Sylvan Lake Wranglers.

Things looked good early in the contest, however, as Nathan Verloop’s powerplay marker, assisted by Adam Kennedy and Koden Lazar, made it 1-0 Copperheads. The Wranglers tied it up with a powerplay tally to tie the score after 20 minutes.

Both teams battled to a scoreless middle frame before Sylvan Lake made it 2-1 just over a minute into the third. Coaldale’s Rylan Bruns tied the game with 59 seconds left, as it looked like Coaldale’s November magic just might continue.

But a Wranglers goal with 15 seconds left ended Coaldale’s winning streak and sent the Copperheads fans home with an unusual feeling – a loss.

Coaldale and Sylvan both went ¼ on the powerplay, as the Wranglers outshot the Copperheads 27-26. Kaiden Fulton made 34 stops and took the hard-luck loss for the Copperheads.

On Sunday, Coaldale got back to its winning ways with a thrilling 6-5 win in the shootout over the Cochrane Generals.

Peyton Twigg made it 1-0 with a goal assisted by Lazar and Caden Heins. After Cochrane tied it, Bruns scored an unassisted marker and Drew Constant added another to make it 3-1. Bruns and Griffin McCulloch drew assists on the third goal.

The Generals tied it at three before the first period was up, and then scored the first three goals in the second to take a 5-3 lead.

Cochrane’s advantage was short lived, as Brinley Degenstein scored on the powerplay, as Constant and Kenney drew assists, before Twigg tied it at five on a goal assisted by Heins and Verloop.

A scoreless third period and overtime session pushed the game to the shootout, where the first four shooters came up empty for both teams. The fifth shooters scored for each team, as Kobe Fujita put one home for the Copperheads, before Constant scored the shootout winner.

Coaldale was 2/6 with the man advantage and Cochrane was 1/5, as the Copperheads held a slight 39-38 edge on the shotclock. Nixon Ordway earned the win in goal with 32 saves.

This weekend, Coaldale will host Okotoks on Saturday for an 8 p.m. contest. The Copperheads head to Cochrane on Sunday for a 3 p.m. game against the Generals.

Coaldale is now in a tie for second in the South Division with 29 points and a 14-4-1 record. Medicine Hat’s 13-3-3 record also has Cubs at 29 points.

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