Bantam Warrior Kasyn Pipke works his way around the Drayton Valley defence during the second period of their 6-4 win Feb. 13 at the Rotary Spirit Centre. The club went on to defeat Whitecourt Feb. 16 in the Zone 3 final to earn a spot at the Bantam ‘A’ Provincial Championships in Cold Lake March 14-17.
The Westlock Bantam 1 Warriors will play for a provincial championship next month after defeating Whitecourt in both games of the Zone 3 final Feb. 5 and Feb. 16.
Cold Lake will host the Bantam ‘A’ tournament March 14-16 and the boys are looking for a repeat performance of last season when the team captured the provincial title.
The team has a good mix of bantam veterans who were on the team last year that helped mentor the younger players along the journey to provincials.
“The thing about provincials is you don’t really know what it’s about until you’ve been there. It kind of creates its own energy once you get there and see what it’s all about. It’s quite an event,” said coach Paul Olsen.
Zone playdowns began Jan. 22 with the bantams rolling over the team from St. Albert 6-1, then 5-0 on Jan. 23. The combined score of the two-game play down dictates the winner of the series.
With the win, the team received a bye into the zone finals against Whitecourt, who they then defeated 6-5 and 4-2.
The bantams also wrapped up their regular season and are looking at starting their Northern Alberta Interlock League playoffs next weekend with a home game scheduled for 8 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Rotary Spirit Centre.
The squad played their rivals from Drayton Valley at the Spirit Centre Feb. 13, coming from behind to defeat the visiting team by a score of 6-4. Kasyn Pipke scored a hat trick to lift the Warriors over Drayton Valley after the team fell behind early in the game.
The team started the season off with an 0-3-3 record, but turned it around shortly after that, finishing the season with an 12-6-5 record, good enough for second place in Tier 1.
“It’s been going good, it’s been going pretty decent,” said Olsen.
“I think everybody playing as a team and working hard together really turned us around. We’re just trying to be consistent and work together as a team.
“We moved some lines around and we have a group of guys that can play well together. It has really been gelling.”
The team will be playing at least two playoff games a week until provincials so Olsen isn’t too worried about whether they will be prepared to try to bring another banner to Westlock.
“We’re just going to continue working on everything we’ve been working on,” he said.
