Over 450 hockey fans made their way to the Drumheller Memorial Arena Tuesday night to watch the Dragons first at-home exhibition game of the 2015-2016 season.
The Dragons hosted the Lloydminster Bobcats and took a 3-1 win over the visiting team.
“I really enjoyed our first period, I thought our guys were flying. We moved the puck really well. It is just that second period we stopped moving our feet, especially in the defensive zone, they held more time in our zone,” Dragons Head Coach and General Manager Brian Curran said.
He told inSide Drumheller this was a technique the team had been working on in practice and he feels there was a miscommunication between the coaching staff and players.
“It was something we were working on in practice the other day and they literally took it one way. When we don’t have the puck, If you watch, they were trying not to get picked, they were keeping to one side, but at some point we’ve got to pin somebody. We can’t let them skate around all night long,” he said.
“We are going to go over that. I think they were a little confused in practice. I didn’t mind what they were doing, just nobody hit anybody, it was just watching them circle around and around. If you look at the chances they got from some of the shifts, they didn’t get much, but they just controlled it so much that they were chasing their tail all night long in that second period. A little miscommunication between us (coaches) and players so we will get that sorted out,” he said. “The third period I liked a lot. We never quit.”
There was no scoring in the first period, and it was the Bobcats’ Troy VanTeter that opened scoring in the second. Mere seconds later, the Dragons’ Clint Flibrandt scored the home team’s first goal.
The game broke for the second intermission and the third period was a success for the Dragons who scored two more goals, the first by Dalton Angelvedt and the second by Chayden Lauber.
Over the weekend the Dragons had traveled to Okotoks for a mini exhibition tournament. Thursday afternoon the Dragons took on the Brooks Bandits and took an 11-1 loss.
Friday afternoon the Dragons faced the host team the Okotoks Oilers and took a 5-3 win. Saturday afternoon the Dragons took on the Calgary Mustangs and went home with a 4-3 win leaving the three game pre-season tournament with two wins and one loss.
“We got destroyed by Brooks. Brooks is a good team, they are always going to be a good team, but when you take a look at that whole weekend, I was very proud of our guys the way they came back after getting hammered by Brooks. I am getting pretty sick and tired of people (looking) at the killing that Brooks put on us. Well how about the fact that a team gets beat that bad and comes back and wins the next two games, and against two tough opponents too,” Curran said.
“What happened, we sucked. We were all horrible. We didn’t play well, we didn’t coach well, we didn’t do anything well. We are all responsible for that loss but it is that resilience to come back. In the second game it was a little bit better, in the third game it was much better and tonight (Tuesday) was much better. You have to give credit when credit is due,” he explained.
“The funny thing about the tournament was that the first game we get killed, Okotoks beats the (Calgary) Mustangs 4-1 and then the next night the Mustangs go out and they beat Brooks 6-5, and then we beat Okotoks (5-3). Then the next day we beat the Mustangs (4-3) and then Okotoks loses 1-0 to Brooks,” he said.
The Dragons traveled to Lloydminster to face the Bobcats in the second of the back-to-back exhibition series on Wednesday night and took a 6-2 loss.
They will now host the Okotoks Oilers Monday, September 7 at 7 p.m. in their last exhibition game before their home opener on September 11 against the Calgary Canucks.
Prior to the 7:30 p.m. start, there will be a family friendly tailgate party in the Badlands Community Facility parking lot from 5-7 p.m.
