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Last updateThu, 18 Apr 2024 9am

Dragons win home opener, raise banner

 

 

The sounds of hundreds of orange cowbells rang out from the Drumheller Memorial Arena Friday night as the Drumheller Dragons played their first home game of the 2014-2015 regular season. The Dragons welcomed the Calgary Mustangs who played hard, but the home team took a 5-2 win, their second of the season.

The night began with the anticipation of the reveling and rising of the Dragons 2013-2014 South Division Champions banner. Over 750 fans watched and cheered as the banner was raised while they rang their bells.

Head Coach Brian Curran said he doesn’t feel any pressure because of the banner.

“I can separate two seasons. To me at the end of the day, we won the southern division championship, great, I am proud of our guys, our guys worked hard and the community was amazing with support, but we didn’t win the championship. Now I am more focused on getting to that stage.”

Game action got underway as the Mustangs opened the scoring two minutes and four seconds into the first period with a shorthanded goal from Zach McNeill. The Dragons came back two minutes and forty seconds later with a goal scored by Ethan James, his first of the season, with an assist from newly named captain Ryan Suchorab.

James said scoring the first home ice goal of the regular season felt “really good. I didn’t even realize it went off me. It was kind of a weird goal, shot from the point, I just got in front of the net and it bounced in.”

The Dragons second goal of the evening, his second of the season, was scored at the 10:58 mark by Mitchell Cook from Dakota Zaharichuk, but less than a minute later Dragons Hunter Mills scored his first of the season, a powerplay goal, from Wyatt Noskey, making the score 3-1. The Mustangs finished the first period scoring off at the 14:20 mark with a goal by Mason Mitchell from Phelan Shaw and Romano Morrison leaving the score at 3-2.

Curran said there was nervousness in the first.

“Just trying to get guys to relax. It is hard when you are playing a home opener and especially with the banner raising. I could see it, we were working, but we weren’t working enough.”

Second period action came less than a minute in when Dragons Zaharichuk scored his first goal of the season from Cook and Jarell Pinchuk. The fifth and final goal of the game, his first of the season, came from Dragons’ Suchorab at 8:28 of the second from Mills and Noskey. Curran said the second period was a turn around. “Some of those shifts there, 8-12 shifts were absolute domination. At the end of the day, I thought our power play was good. I find the mustangs are a good team. They play hard, but at the end of the day, they didn’t play quite hard enough.”

James said he thought the team played really well. “The second period I thought was really strong for us. First period we came out flying like it was a home opener, like we were all pumped and ready to go. I thought we played a good full 60 (minutes).”

Curran said he thought the atmosphere was “great. I think the fans enjoyed the game. A team like the Mustangs really work hard at getting their place and they are not backing down. I was happy with our performance tonight.” The Dragons next home game is Tuesday September 16 when they will face the Okotoks Oilers with a 7p.m. start at memorial arena.


Extreme make-over: wall edition



    Walmart has taken out a building permit to repair the damaged wall on their property.
    Mayor Yemen said the company is planning to start the work later into September, weather permitting.
    After the initial start date this spring lapsed  without repairs, the Town of Drumheller  spent time trying to get Walmart to have the repairs completed this summer.
    With no construction again planned, the Town sent a letter to Walmart asking for action, with specific timelines set out to the retailer.
    The Town was also considering court action as   step if Walmart was further unwilling to comply with the municipality.
    Safety, the instability of the ground, and avoiding a road cave-in were what the Town cited as their main concerns.
    Walmart placed fencing around the wall towards mid-August to keep people away from the area.
    The Mayor said this will be the third time Walmart has had to repair the large retaining wall the borders the store parking lot.
    Construction costs are estimated at half a million dollars.

“Awesome country and amazing history, hospitable folks.”



Every year InSide Drumheller holds the Great
Drumheller Dinosaur Challenge, not only a great way to spend an afternoon, it provides wonderful feedback from visitors on their valley experience.

    Summer came to an abrupt end this week, with one day under a blistering sun and the next behind a blustery wind.
    It was an exciting year for the valley. Many attractions saw record-breaking numbers. There was also the introduction of Tough Mudder weekend. Inside Drumheller had an exciting year, launching www.drumhellertourism.com, providing residents and visitors all the latest information on what is happening in the valley.
 One aspect of the summer publication which has not changed, is our annual Great Dinosaur Challenge. This is a contest where visitors and residents can identify the locale of the valley’s famous dinosaurs for a chance to win a gift certificate from any of Drumhellertourism.com’s advertisers.
    More than just a fun way to spend an afternoon in the valley, we provide a space for comments and perceptions of the valley. They are also a lot of fun to read.
    This year, judging by the entries, while there were visitors from all over North America, it was an Alberta Break kind of season for the valley. The bulk of entries are from in-province.
    While it appears that Calgarians are aware of what the valley has to offer, and come in droves, there were more entries than in previous years from northern points including Red Deer, Edmonton and Grande Prairie.
    From outside the province we noticed the next largest group of entries came from British Columbia. And while throngs of Albertans head west to enjoy the unique landscapes of B.C., a group from Nelson, B.C., commented about loving the valley, and the river, while one from Vancouver described the area as  ‘Awesome country and amazing history, hospitable folks.”
    As usual, there were many youngsters who entered and the fascination with dinosaurs always ranks high. One visitor from, Odessa, Saskatchewan summed up the whole experience: “My favourite part of Drumheller was seeing the dinosaur museum, playing at the splash park and water fountain, going inside the big dinosaur and doing this scavenger hunt.”
    The quality of events Drumheller puts on is certainly becoming an attraction in itself. One visitor from Cold Lake tells us “We’ve been to Drumheller every year since DinoFest started and we always have a wonderful time. The best part is we spend most of our time on foot because of all the great walking trails and scenery.”
    And the valley continues to cultivate repeat visitors. A visitor from Calgary said, “Our family really likes Drumheller. We’ll be back to visit here again.”
    Another from Edmonton, said. “We enjoyed our visit on the May Long Weekend very much. We’ve booked our cabin at River Grove for 2015!”


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