By COLBY STOESZ
The U18AA Martensville Marauders and Warman Wildcats faced off on October 27, as the Warman Home Centre Communiplex hosted the scorching rivalry. The visiting Marauders came out on top, cruising to a 7-1 victory over the still winless Wildcats.
The opening period began slow, with Martensville’s Kaden Shumay scoring the lone goal. Kohen Pierce picked up the assist, and the first buzzer sounded with the Marauders up 1-0.
The Marauders built on their lead to begin the second frame. Greyson Sorowski scored two minutes in, with help from Deagan Reister. 10 minutes later, Parker Livingstone notched his 10th goal of the season and put Martensville up 3-0 just past the halfway point of the match.
Warman finally answered as Carson Ducharme scored 26 seconds later to prevent a shutout. But the Wildcats couldn’t stop the bleeding, as Reister scored for the Marauders a mere 9 seconds later. After 40 minutes, Martensville led the Wildcats 4-1.
Warman’s Karter McKinnon rounds the corner as a Marauder attacker nears (Gazette photo by Colby Stoesz
Martensville continued to pepper the Warman goaltender in the third period. Matt Warren faced 53 shots throughout the contest, while the Wildcats only got off 26 attempts.
Brayden Skene opened the third with a power-play goal, assisted by Sorowski. Tyler Hale made it a 6-1 game with help from Livingston and Pierce, and Brayden Skene scored his second of the period on another power play to ice the score at 7-1 in favour of the Marauders.
Penalties killed any hope the Warman crowd could have mustered, as the Wildcats served 19 minutes in the box.
Martensville’s Josh Olson stopped 25 of 26 shots, standing strong as his team spent the majority of the game on attack.
The Marauders improved to 5-1-1 on the season, lifting them to third place in the U18AA Centre Four conference. Warman remains at the bottom of the league standings, as they have yet to pick up a win in seven games.
Martensville’s next home game will come on November 3, as they’ll host the Saskatoon Crunch at the newly opened Martensville Recreation Centre. Warman will look to win their first game of the season the same day when they host the also winless North West Stars.