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‘Wrecking Cru’ line leads Crusaders to 7-0 start

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A line this divine deserves a name.

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I’m going with the Wrecking Cru.

The Sherwood Park Crusaders are off to an unofficial franchise best 7-0 start and a lot of that has been due to the incredible offensive prowess displayed by their top line.

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As a matter of fact, the trio of Carter Savoie, Will Zapernick and captain Arjun Atwal occupied the three top spots in the Alberta Junior Hockey League scoring race as of Sunday.

In seven games, Arwal leads the entire league with 19 points, followed by Savoie and Zapernick with 17 points apiece. Defenceman Michael Benning sits in 11th with 10 points.

All three members of the Wrecking Cru had huge impacts over the weekend as the Crusaders won both of their games as part of the annual AJHL Showcase in Camrose, an event designed to feature all the teams in the league in one setting, thus attracting a ton of college and pro scouts.

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The Cru made it six wins to launch the season on Thursday as they came away with a 6-3 win over the Drumheller Dragons.

“The two teams we played this weekend were really good opponents, our toughest tests of the season so far,” said Crusaders head coach Adam Manah. “Drumheller came out hot and heavy and played us really hard. They had a lot of speed and energy. We weren’t quite ready for that off the get-go. They took it to us in the first 10 minutes and we were down 2-1 but then our power play scored and we got another one after that to make it 3-2 at the end of the first period. We got two more power play goals in the second. I liked how we played in the second and third, but the power play was the big game-changer as we went three-for-five.”

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Savoie led the way with two goals and five points in the game, Zapernick had two goals and two assists and Atwal a goal and three assists. Also scoring for the Sherwood side was Jarred White.

The Crusaders made it a lucky seven straight wins on Saturday as they survived an offensive slugfest with a 6-5 victory over the Okotoks Oilers.

“That was as good of a game as you could watch it was so back and forth,” Manah said. “They were given the first goal but we later saw on video that it went off the crossbar. But they counted it. Nevertheless, we responded on the next shift, so it was good to see our resiliency there. We had a 3-1 lead but got into some penalty trouble, which gave them some momentum. Not that they were able to score on the power play, but they wore us down, which led to it being 4-4 going into the third. We were very good in the third and outshot them 16-5. We were down 5-4, but we got two power play goals to win it. I think we were five-for-nine on the power play in the two games, which is more than 50 per cent and was the talk of the Showcase.”

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The Crusaders have yet to allow a power play goal against in seven games this season.

Savoie had a hat trick, with White adding two goals and Jacob Franczak the other. Backup goalie Jordan Frey made 34 stops to improve to 3-0 since coming to the Park from the SJHL.

Manah said his top line has been lights out to start the season.

“They have been incredible,” Manah said. “It has been fun to watch. They have been our backbone so far. Since our third game, they have really taken over and been the best line on the ice every single night. Carter Savoie, even though he is a young guy, there is a lot of expectations on him and he is fulfilling that. Arjun and Will are both 20-year-olds and they know what the expectations are of them and they want to set the bar high. Those three demand a lot out of each and hold each other accountable in terms of leading the team and everybody else will follow. They have really dominated. It is almost like they are playing keep-away in the offensive zone. It is pretty impressive, what they have been able to do so far.”

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You can’t ask for much more than a 7-0 start.

“(GM) Kyle Chase has been here for a while and he can’t recall anything like this,” Manah said. “To go 7-0 isn’t an easy thing to do, especially with the parity in the league and the opponents that we have faced. Our group keeps finding ways to win. The North Division is tight and you need to get the points when you can.”

The Crusaders are off until Friday but will then be tested with three road games in three days, playing the Canmore Eagles on Friday, the Okotoks Oilers again on Saturday and the Olds Grizzlys on Sunday.

sjones@postmedia.com

twitter.com/Realshanejones

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