Saints One Win Away From Doyle Cup:

Spruce Grove Saints beat Fort McMurray Oil Barons 7-5

By Chris O’Leary, edmonton journal

April 10, 2010 7:04 AM

SPRUCE GROVE — Whether it's the Spruce Grove Saints or the Fort McMurray Oil Barons who end up hoisting the Enerflex Cup, fans can't say they didn't get their entertainment value.

The motion sickness is an added bonus.

Game 5 of the Alberta Junior Hockey League final see-sawed even more than the previous games, with the hometown Saints outgunning the Oil Barons 7-5 in front of 1,643 fans at Grant Fuhr Arena Friday night.

The Saints lead the best-of-seven series 3-2, thanks to a seven-goal effort in the game's final 20 minutes from both teams. When the smoke settled, the Saints were left standing, having blasted themselves out of the 3-2 hole they were standing in at the start of the third.

"We wanted to have no reservations and no regrets playing that third period. That was what we said after the second period," said Saints head coach and general manager Steve Hamilton. "Who knew that we would need four goals, or five goals or whatever we got to win? That was a crazy game. It was an emotional roller-coaster and I liked our resolve. I'm proud of those guys."

Liam Darragh, Joshua Lazowski, Bryce Van Brabant, David Glen, Jordan Draper and Josh Koper all scored for the Saints, with Kodie Curran adding an empty-netter.

Vincenzo Marozzi stopped 22 shots for the Saints, while Jesse Kallechy turned aside 29 for the Oil Barons.

Justin Rose, James Isaacs, Brooks Robinson, Markus Gerbrandt and Shay Laurent netted goals for Fort McMurray.

The Saints could wrap up the final on Sunday in Fort McMurray.

The first 40 minutes of the game stayed true to how the Barons and Saints had played for the majority of the series. When one team made a move -- the Saints held a 2-0 lead midway through the second period -- the other answered back. The Oil Barons struck three times in 4:59 in the second period to go into the intermission with the lead.

"It would have been (nice to win)," said Oil Barons assistant coach Tom Keca. "To position yourself the way that we did, the way we were playing was also key, but ... this is a league final and they were the top team in the league for a reason."

Glen scored for Spruce Grove at 3:50, when Kallechy unknowingly had let the puck slip away from him. Glen tucked it away to knot the game 3-3. At 11:06, both teams drew their weapons. Gerbrandt scored off a rebound to make it 4-3 for Fort McMurray; Darragh did the same 22 seconds later, making it 4-4.

"A couple of goals looked like a comedy of errors from both sides," Keca said.

Reading the same script, Koper struck from in close to put the Saints up 5-4. Laurent answered back for the Oil Barons 18 seconds later to tie it 5-5. Finally, 2:06 later, Draper scored the game's lone power-play goal. In the flurry of scribbling, announcing and celebrating, the goal was initially credited to Darragh.

"I got the fourth goal, or something like that," Darragh said. "It was wild."

In the Saints' locker-room, Draper, 20, wasn't sure that he'd accomplished what he did with his goal.

"It was definitely not one of my prettiest goals, but probably my biggest, that's for sure," he said.