Local players lead Barons past Canucks

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Three Strathmore players led the Fort McMurray Oil Barons to a 4-3 win over the Calgary Canucks in front of more than 600 passionate fans at the Strathmore Family Centre on Dec. 15.
Will Conley notched two goals and Connor McCallum also tallied once in front of their hometown fans. The other Strathmore native, Shane Fraser, added an assist in the contest, which pitted the ‘home team’ Calgary Canucks versus the visiting Barons.
“It was just so exciting to come into a rink that was so familiar and just home for me,” said Conley. “Even our home rink in Fort Mac doesn’t quite feel like this one. I grew up playing here and scored a lot of goals on this ice. I’m glad to play my last game here and score a couple goals.”
He said it was good to hear a crowd like that – loud and ecstatic – when he scored his first goal against a consistent Canucks squad recently.
“They’re pretty hot right now,” said Conley. “They’re a good team with a really good goaltender on the back end. We just battled hard. We threw the body around and buried on a lot of our chances. We’ve been struggling scoring lately, but we got a really good goaltender on the backend and it really helps having a crowd cheer us on.”
Fraser was pumped up upon getting to the rink and knew the crowd was going to play a factor in the game.
“It was pretty awesome,” he said. “I knew it was going to be a big crowd. My dad has been hyping it up all week. I was pretty excited to get back out here. I knew most of the people would be cheering for us because of the three local guys. To get the support for an away game for us was outstanding.
“We just kept calm in our zone. (We) talked it out whenever they had a flurry of chances.”
According to McCallum, to start the game with Conley and Fraser on the very first shift of the game was an unbelievable feeling, which kicked off a special night.
“We had lots of energy for that first shift,” he said. “To get to start in Strathmore, our hometown was pretty amazing. It definitely felt like we were the home team even though the Canucks were getting the goal horn. I think, even at the end you could tell who everybody was cheering for.”