Westlock’s midget Warriors narrowly missed a gold medal at the ninth annual Gord Smith Memorial Midget Tournament they hosted over the weekend.
Even without a gold medal they’re heading back into 1660 Hockey League regular season action with a second wind after a hard-fought 5-3 loss to the Edmonton NWZ Lightning in the final.
The Warriors remain winless in their regular season action, but two wins followed by a hard-fought gold-medal match have given the players a much-needed boost, assistant coach Darren Watson said.
“The wins are very important,” he said. “It grows confidence in your abilities, and as a coaching staff it also helps the kids realize what we’re doing as a coaching staff can be implemented in game situations. That really helps the confidence level.”
The Warriors earned the chance to compete for the gold by easily overcoming their opponents in the round-robin portion of the tournament.
The first match against Sherwood Park resulted in a 13-1 win for the Warriors, which they followed up with a 12-0 win over Sexsmith.
And based on the quality of play, that final match could have gone either way. The boys came on strong right out of the gate, with captain Madison Vekved putting the Warriors on the board less than a minute into the game. The Lightning responded, but a mid-period goal from Mack Schiller gave Westlock a 2-1 edge going into the second.
Things took a turn for the worse in the second period, with the Lightning scoring back-to-back goals around the five-minute mark. A minute later, however, Adam Hardinge tied things up.
In the third period, although the Warriors kept up a consistent effort, the Lightning defense proved to be too much, and the Warriors let slip two more for a 5-3 finish.
Even without the win, though, Watson said he was impressed with how the Warriors played.
“I thought overall the effort level was extremely high. They had a really good club on the other side, and our boys hadn’t been tested that hard before,” he said.
“They came out today and gave a really good effort.”
