WESTLOCK - The Westlock Warriors’ backs are firmly against the wall in their best-of-five North Central Hockey League semifinal series versus the Lacombe Generals with every game from here on out a must win.
The Warriors came out on the wrong end of a 7-6 OT goal festival in Lacombe Feb. 26, then were blanked 2-0 the following afternoon in Westlock at the Rotary Spirit Centre and are now clinging to their playoff lives with Game 3 slated for March 5 in Lacombe — Game 4, if necessary, will be back at the RSC March 11.
“Our backs are against the wall, but we’re looking forward to the challenge,” said captain Mike Ivey Sunday night. “These were two winnable games, but also two very different games. We feel that we can beat them and I think we probably deserved a better fate in both.
“They’re a good team over there and we’re going to need to find another level to come back in this series. We believe we can do it.”
Ivey said the Saturday-night defeat especially stings as they had a 5-2 lead heading into the final 20 minutes. But the big lead evaporated over a 10-minute span as the Generals pumped in four unanswered goals to take a 6-5 advantage.
Down but not out, Warrior Brett Kampjes netted the equalizer with 50 seconds left to play to send the teams to extra time. The clubs continued to trade chances in OT with the Generals getting the game winner at 8:15.
“We had a tough, tough stretch in the third. To blow that lead was tough, but we tied it up and had some big chances in OT. It was a crazy, crazy game that could have gone either way,” said Ivey.
And while Ivey isn’t one to blame the loss on officiating, it’s hard to overlook the fact that the Warriors were sent to box nine times versus only two minors that were called on the Generals.
“We’ve got to be a bit smarter, we took some tough penalties,” he added.
Kyle Dronyk led the Warriors with two goals, while Mathew Peddie, Austin Grundner, Nathan Brown and Kampjes netted singles. Meanwhile goalie Jordan Brand did everything he could to stem the Generals onslaught, facing 52 shots on the night and earning the game’s second star.
“Jordie was unreal, he’s the reason we were in it,” said Ivey.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s game remained scoreless throughout the first 40 minutes — the Generals broke the ice with a third-period powerplay marker at 16:16, then added to their lead at 4:27. Between the pipes Brand was solid again earning second-star honours while turning aside 24 of the 26 shots he faced.
“It was another physical game again today but we need to stay out of the box. It’s just taking our flow away,” said Ivey. “We had 15 shots in the first but we just couldn’t capitalize. The difference today was that their powerplay got one and we didn’t. Playoffs are always a special teams battle and we just couldn’t buy one today.”
