The Westlock Bantam Warriors embarked on a three-game winning streak over the course of Feb. 16-17, notching one league win and two victories in provincial playdowns.
The first game was hosted at the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre on Feb. 16, where the Warriors downed the visiting St. Albert 3B team by a score of 8-1.
Much like their previous provincial games against Edson and Hinton, the Warriors came out strong and didn’t let up.
“We had a good, physical game and we capitalized on most of our chances. It was a good, hard fought game,” said assistant coach Nelson Jespersen.
Thomas Oloske opened the scoring for Westlock less than five minutes into the first period with assists from Reid Schmidt and Seth Fairholm. AJ Balderston scored less than a minute later on another assist from Fairholm.
Zaydin Nyuli continued the scoring with an unassisted goal and Jonathan Servage made it 4-0 before the end of the first, with assists from Cole Beaver and Jaxon Sigurdur.
Goaltender John Ziese ended up blocking only two shots in the first period, as Westlock ultimately outshot St. Albert 42-14.
The second period was a lot tighter with teams trading checks for most of the period, until Jonah Bennett scored unassisted with less than four minutes left.
Bennett scored his second unassisted goal of the game to open the third frame, followed by Kaysn Pipke adding his own unassisted goal before Dylan Biddiscombe finished the Warriors’ unanswered goal streak at eight, with an assist from Balderston.
St. Albert managed to score its lone goal of the game with 6:50 left in the third, preventing Ziese from earning a potential shutout.
The Warriors then played a second provincial game against St. Albert, this time at the Rogers Place community rink in Edmonton on Feb. 17.
This second provincial match was nearly a “carbon copy” of the first game, with Westlock registering an 8-2 win and solidifying their place in the next round of playdowns against Drayton Valley.
“We’ve got a pretty good skating team and it was physical. I think our overall depth and skill really shined through and we were able to come up with those wins,” said Jespersen.
To cap off their busy weekend, the Warriors also played Drayton Valley in 1660 Hockey League Bantam Tier 1 action at the Rotary Spirit Centre later that evening.
In their second game of the day, the Warriors defeated the visiting squad 10-0.
“We were very happy with our boys in their second game on Saturday. We didn’t know what to expect from them after playing a physical game early in the afternoon, but they came out and played a complete game. Their work ethic was awesome, we were quite pleased,” said Jespersen.
