November 25, 2023

The Saturday afternoon re-match between the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings and the Briercrest Clippers at
the Barkman Arena was a hard-hitting, end-to-end, fast-paced battle that picked up from where they left
off last night. Both teams came out with altered lineups due to the previous game's altercations and
injuries. Briercrest chose to start netminder Alex Worthington and Red Deer went with the winning
goaltender from yesterday, #81 Evan Fradette.
The first period saw long stretches between whistles, big hits and no love lost between the two
opponents. Briercrest got on the board early – just 4 minutes into the opening frame, forward #16 Josh
Wiens picked up a loose puck on the boards and skated in for the first goal of the game. With less than a
minute remaining in the period, Briercrest's defenseman #7 Jacob Arsenault started a beautiful play,
allowing #11 Reagan Poncelet to snipe one past the Red Deer netminder, and the crowd went wild.
Going into the second period, Red Deer came out hard and dominated the play but the Briercrest
rookie, Worthington shut them down and made some incredible saves to keep his team ahead.
Briercrest forward #27 Zach Ashworth was able to muscle his way through the King's defence and scored
midway through the second period on a long pass from defenseman#28 Landon Russell.
The third period proved to be intense as Red Deer was still very much in this game. The intensity picked
up, hits got harder, speed intensified and with that, a flurry of infractions led to a steady parade to
both sides of the penalty box. With just 3 minutes left, and a 5-3 power play for Red Deer, they called a
time-out to strategize and pull the goalie. Caleb Grandfield, #44 for the Clippers was able to capitalize on
the open net and that open net goal sealed the deal. Unfortunately, tempers flared on both sides and
his goal was overshadowed by a rash of penalties at the end of the game.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Briercrest Clippers came away with a 4-0 win. Player of the game
for the visiting Red Deer Kings was #10, Tanner Shlaruk with a solid performance and thrilled family in
the crowd, and for the Clippers with the shutout, #70 Alex Worthington.
Shots in the game were 24 for the Clippers and 33 for the Kings. Powerplay opportunities were even at
seven a side.