WESTLOCK - The Westlock Warriors are moving on to the North Central Hockey League semifinals after completing a three-game, opening-round playoff series sweep of the Morinville Kings with a dominant 8-3 Saturday-night win in Morinville.
Captain Mike Ivey said they showed a lot of resilience throughout the series, a fact on display in the Feb. 12 clincher that saw the Kings run out to an early two-goal first period lead, the third-straight game the Kings opened the scoring. The Warriors won Game 1 5-4 at home Feb. 4, then followed up a 6-4 victory in Game 2 the next night in Morinville.
In Game 3, forward Kyle Dronyk’s first of three on the night at 9:52 started the comeback, while a goal from Joshua Kaliel with 3:16 left on the clock tied the game.
Ivey opened the scoring 1:26 into the second period, while Clayton Eisler potted his first of two on the night four minutes later and Chris Brand continued the onslaught with an unassisted marker at 9:38.
In the third Dronyk, who was named the game’s first star, went off and netted his second and third goals, while a reply from the Kings at 10:46 was quickly answered 30 seconds later from Eisler. Goalie Jordan Brand turned aside 23 of the 26 shots he faced to remain undefeated in the post season, while Kellan Cornelis, who finished the night with two assists, was named third star of the game.
“It was awesome. It was good to close them out in a pretty dominant fashion,” said Ivey the day following the game. “We settled in and got going. Our strength lately has been our ability to preserve and take over a game. We just stuck with it.”
With the opening round series between the Devon Barons and Camrose Crunch still underway (Camrose leads the series 2-1), the Warriors will have to wait to find out who their next opponent will be — if the Barons manage to win that series the Warriors will face the Red Deers Rustlers in another best of five, while if the Crunch prevail the Warriors will take on the Lacombe Generals, who finished the year atop the league with an 11-1-0-2 mark.
Ivey said both opponents will be tough tests and are big, physical clubs. Working in the Warriors favour is the fact they’ve played both teams tough and were the only club to defeat the Generals in 60 minutes — the Generals were beaten twice in OT. The Warriors also split their season-series versus Red Deer, posting a 6-4 win over the Rustlers Dec. 17 at the Rotary Spirit Centre.
“We match up well with Lacombe and we don’t mind playing them. They’re big and strong and it would be a battle of a series and very physical if we do end up facing them,” said Ivey. “And Red Deer would be much the same as they’re big and strong too. I think we’re fine with any match-up we get because we’ll have to face one of them eventually.”
