The red-hot trio of Graham Jones, Alex Donovan and Gavin Katz provided some pretty smooth deliveries for the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Sabres at the Circle K Classic in Calgary.
All three players put up a combined 12 points including five of the Sabres goals coasting to an easy 7-1 elimination round victory on Monday over the Cariboo Cougars at the Max Bell Arena.
Shattuck delivered the game’s opening blow at 8:20 of the first period as Nolan Claffey’s shot re-directed past Cougars netminder Andrik Lygas for a 1-0 edge.
The Sabres exploded for five more in the middle frame with Donovan and Katz each notching a pair while Henri Amnent added a single extending the lead to 6-0.
Donovan completed his hat-trick at 10:59 of the third period finishing off a scoring play involving Jones and Kyle Hager.
Jack Tidsbury cashed in on the power-play late for Cariboo dashing the shutout bid for Sabres netminder Xavier Wendt.
Wendt made 16 saves in the win for Shattuck. Lygas was pulled after giving up five goals on 34 shots. Seattle Thunderbirds prospect Jaxon Dixur stopped 17 of 19 Sabres shots in relief.
Donovan is leading the Circle K Classic in scoring with 17 points in four games. He is also one of 11 players on the Sabres roster who are committed to NCAA programs.
Cariboo (17-3-1-1) was outshot 53-17 but went 1-for-3 on the power-play while Shattuck-St Mary’s failed to score on all three of their chances.
The next action for the U18 Cougars will be January 11th and 12th when they visit the Vancouver North East Chiefs from the Scotia Barn in Burnaby.
Cariboo remains in first place in the BCEHL, one point ahead of the Valley West Giants (17-5-0-1).
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