If anyone was going to break the streak in October, the Fort St. John Huskies have the personnel to do it. Sporting impressive depth from the crease outward, the Huskies enter yet another season with Championship aspirations after finishing first in the league last year - their fifth such placing in 6 years.
With only a single regulation loss to start the season, the Huskies have rivaled La Crete's impressive start to the campaign. Hot streaks are no strange happenings with the FSJ squad, who went on a 35-game win streak to finish the 2022-23 schedule and ultimately took home the NWJHL Championship. They would extend their regular season streak to 39 after a hot start to the 2023/24 season before finally succumbing to the County of GP Wheat Kings in OT on October 7th and then experiencing their first regulation loss in a calendar year (!!) in a 5-2 losing effort against the La Crete Lumber Barons the next day.
Fast forward to October 28, when a crowd of 802 would come to Raymond Knelsen Arena to watch two of the top teams in the NWJHL battle it out for first place in the League standings. The Barons' win streak would live to see another day, as Tobias Driedger helped lift the home squad to victory with a pair of goals; a shorthanded insurance marker to make the game 3-1 in the second period, and again on the powerplay at the end of the game to put the finishing touches on a tidy 5-1 victory on that Saturday night. Captain Dorian Schmidt finished the game with a goal and an assist to help put the game out of reach, while defenseman Jacob Paul put up a pair of assists of his own.
Sunday's game was an even tighter matchup as the two teams swapped leads in both the first and second periods before heading into the final frame deadlocked at two goals apiece. The game was up for grabs for whoever wanted it more. La Crete would prove to be the hungrier squad, breaking the tie early in the period on a Matthew Bergen strike and pushing the pace until Eric Giesbrecht potted his league-leading 22nd goal of the season into a yawning cage with the Huskies' goaltender watching from the bench. Fort St John would fail to register a shot on goal in the third and final frame.
The Lumber Barons are showing they are more than a one-line team, highlighted by the pair of victories of the weekend where their top line of Drew Friesen, Eric Giesbrecht and Landon Derksen combined for a mere 3 points over the 2 games combined. Instead, the Barons second and third lines got the job done, with the trio of Toby Driedger (2 goals and 1 assist for 3 points), Dorian Schmidt (2-1-3) and Matthew Bergen (1-1-2) leading the charge, while the all-rookie line of Jonah Cardinal (1-1-2), Carter Fehr (1-1-2) and Durell Moberly (0-1-1) provided timely goals in the early going of each game.
Andre Giesbrecht tended goal in both games for the Lumber Barons, stopping 39 of 42 shots overall for a sparkling 0.929 save percentage and a 1.50 GAA against one of the most dynamic offensive units in the league. He also collected his 8th and 9th wins on the campaign, which leads the NWJHL. It's been a heck of a season for the Barons' starter, who has posted a .915 save percentage, coupled with a 2.11 GAA while playing every game against the toughest teams and allowing more than 2 goals only twice in 9 games thus far.
Up next: the Lumber Barons travel to Sexsmith to take on the Vipers on Saturday night, before heading to Beaverlodge for an afternoon matinee Sunday versus the Blades to wrap up the back-to-back. La Crete is a combined 3-0-0 on the season against the two teams, outscoring the clubs by a respective margin of 9-1 and 19-3.
