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Claresholm Cowboys open season with convincing win

Posted on: Staff Writer
hockey night in claresholm - The Claresholm Cowboys began their inaugural season in the United States Premier Hockey League on Saturday night, Sept. 26, at Claresholm Arena. Here Claresholm Mayor Brad Schlossberger drops the puck for the ceremonial opening face off between Claresholm Captain Dustyn Stoesz, at right, and Three Hills Captain Blake O'Dempsey, at left. Photo by Rob Vogt

By Rob Vogt
Claresholm opened a new chapter in its hockey history as the Claresholm Cowboys stepped on the ice for their inaugural season in the United States Premier Hockey League.
The Cowboys hosted the Three Hills Titans at Claresholm Arena on Saturday, Sept. 26, winning by a score of 8-3.
Mario Hernandez-Mellin scored the first goal in Claresholm Cowboy history at 13:08, with assists by Markus Hancock and Aleksandar Lusty.
The Cowboys upped their lead to 2-0 about 3.5 minutes later as Jake Gislason scored with help from Lucas Giveen Gomes De Reis and Dante Rock.
Claresholm closed out the scoring in the first period, increasing their lead to 3-0 on a goal from Kaden Devlin assisted by Tyler Sinclair.
After Three Hills cut the lead to 3-1, Gislason made the score 4-1 about six minutes into the second period, assisted by Hancock and Vitalii Kobylnik.
That seemed to wake up the Titans who scored two straight to narrow the gap to 4-3.
However, Claresholm responded with two unanswered goals of their own to make the score 6-3 going into the second intermission.
The goals came off the sticks of Dustyn Stoesz, assisted by Hancock and Claresholm native Grayden Desjarlais; and Kobylnik, assisted by Giveen Gomes De Reis.
The Titans got no closer as Claresholm added two more goals to win by that 8-3 score.
Goals came from Kabir Sidhu, assisted by Desjarlais and Riley Malin; and Sinclair, unassisted.
The two teams were back on the ice at Claresholm Arena on Sunday afternoon for a rematch the Cowboys also won, by a score of 4-2.
Claresholm again took control early, leading 2-0 after the first period and 3-0 after 40 minutes, before the Titans showed signs of life in the third period.
Scoring for the Cowboys were Tyler Sinclair, assisted by Maddex Wyton and Ty Scott; Dustyn Stoesz, assisted by Markus Hancock; Hancock, assisted by Stoesz and Jake Gislason; and Gislason, assisted by Dante Rock and Hancock.
The next home action for the Cowboys is at Claresholm Arena on Friday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m. when the Hinton Timberwolves come to town.