Dekker's Corner

 It was a bye week for the Oil Barons. It's something I never get used to, over a week between games. A chance to catch up or get ahead of the curve before one of the busiest stretches of the season for the MOB. The real question is how beneficial is the extended time off for the team? That's a hard one to say and it won't be truly answered until the Oil Barons go head to head with Whitecourt on Friday. On one hand, it gives Fort McMurray a chance to heal up. Rest up the injured players to get themselves close to a full roster. It gives them extra time to game plan for the top team in the league. A Whitecourt squad that already was victorious 6-2 over the Barons at JDA Place in the MOB's worst loss of the season. The extra time off allows Fort McMurray to be prepared to extract revenge on home ice. On the other side of the coin, with how well the MOB has been playing, you almost don't want to see the break. You want to see if the team can keep the momentum rolling, ...

  Wow! What a weekend it was for the Fort McMurray Oil Barons! If you told me going in that the Barons would sweep three games in three days against Grande Prairie, with four veteran defenders out of the lineup and two affiliated players in each night, I would not have believed you. Yet that is exactly what the MOB did. Despite having Spencer Kunz and Patani Mutambo out due to suspension, despite having Willem Terwoord and Jason Walia out due to injury, despite having five rookie defenders playing every game this weekend, the Oil Barons found a way to sweep their first three in three weekend since 2018. First you have to give kudos to goaltenders Logan Cunningham and Berney Wetson. Both netminders combined for 108 saves on 116 shots over the weekend, keeping their team in each game, while also shutting the door on the Storm. Cunningham's career numbers against Grande Prairie are stellar, including a personal .937 save percentage. Then there was Wetson's performance on Sunday......

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone! There is so much to be thankful for, which I will get to my reasons later on, but first how about those two games in Fort McMurray?!? Fans at Centerfire Place were treated to EVERYTHING hockey could throw at you. Goals galore, highlight reel saves, massive hits and a full roster brawl at the end of Sunday's game, this weekend had it all! I won't go into details about the brawl on Sunday, as that is in the hands of the league, but even without it, there are a number of kudos to hand out.  First off, a thumbs up to Logan Cunningham. Logan's last outing was a rough one during the home opener. There were a number of rebounds coughed up that Drumheller took advantage of. While Cunningham wasn't heavily tested yesterday, he faced some grade A scoring opportunities and made some highlight reels saves. None of the goals against were on him, in my opinion. A terrific bounce back effort by the Sherwood Park kid. If you told me heading into the weeken...

 Thursday was the craziest game I have ever called! I've witnessed some fun and wild games before, February 14th, 2023 is one of them where the team I was then calling games for, the Yorkton Terriers, almost erased a 5-0 and 6-2 deficit, falling 7-5 to Weyburn. But a home opener that consisted of 15 goals, overtime, a player who scored four in that game, a game tying marker with 5.3 seconds left! Yeah, that game was as wild as it got. Quick note about that Drew Freer late equalizer, that was the first time in my seven years of broadcasting that the team I worked for tied the game with less than ten seconds remaining in the period and with the goalie pulled. I will say this, it was amazing to be back at Centerfire Place for the first time all season. The fans were terrific! Almost 1,500 both nights to see this year's version of the MOB. They were loud! You could tell how they felt about a disallowed Oil Barons goal with 45 seconds left on Thursday that would've tied the cont...