It was do or die for the Barrhead Atom Icehawks.
The club needed to defeat the Whitecourt Wolverines by two goals if they wanted to continue their quest to reach the Atom ‘A’ Provincial Championships in Peace River in mid-March.
And they did it with a few goals to spare defeating Whitecourt 9 - 3 Feb. 11 at the Barrhead Agrena.
Barrhead qualified for the second round of the three-round provincial championship qualifiers by defeating Drayton Valley 6-2 and 8-0.
On Feb. 4, the Wolverines defeated Barrhead 4-3 in Whitecourt in the first match of the two-game, total goal series.
At first, it looked like the Icehawks journey was going to come to an end on Feb. 11.
In the first period, Whitecourt got off to a quick start scoring their first goal just a little over a minute into the game and then extended their lead about six later.
Rylan O’Brien, with an assist by Liam McCauley, helped cut into that lead scoring Barrhead’s first goal with just under nine minutes to go in the period.
The period ended with Whitecourt leading 2-1, as they held a marked advantage in shots on goal (19-6) and time of possession.
In the second period, it was the Icehawks which got off to a quick start 33 seconds in with a goal by Cooper Kalmbach, assisted by Brock Beauliua and Liam Rentz.
At about the three-minute mark, Barrhead received a golden chance to take the lead when the Wolverines took back-to-back interference penalties giving them a two-man advantage for more than a minute-and-a-half.
Although Barrhead didn’t capitalize on the power play, they took the lead about two minutes later when Rentz converted a chance with the help of Liam McCauley.
Rentz’s goal seemed to be the turning point of the game. In the final five minutes of the period, Barrhead scored two answered goals, the first an unassisted marker by Gunnar Lyons, the other by Aaidan Vdholm, with an assist to Brett Visser, to make it 5-2.
In the third, it looked like Whitecourt might make a game of it when they scored an early goal at the 1:44 mark, but Barrhead put the series out of reach by scoring three goals in less than a minute. The first one came on a pass by Visser just outside the goal crease on a 2-0, which allowed Gunnar Lyons to tap the puck into the net. The second was an unassisted marker. Beauliua then completed the flurry with a goal, assisted by Rentz.
Barrhead cemented their victory when Rentz scored an empty netter with just over five minutes left in the game. Whitecourt pulled their goalie with eight minutes left in the game when Barrhead received a two-minute penalty for body checking.
Head coach Kassidy Hiemstra said they didn’t start the game as strong as they would have liked.
“I think the boys’ nerves ran a little high . . . and that impacted how we started, but they settled down and played well,” he said. “We started playing better in our own end and started burying some shots. I’m really proud of the boys and how they were able to come back from two goals down like that.”
Barrhead will play 1660 League rival Edson in the final round of provincial qualifiers.
“It should be a really good series. We have played them four times this season and it has been an even split,” he said.
On Feb. 15, Edson won the first game of the third round of the provincial qualifiers 4 to 3. The second game will be Feb. 22 at the Barrhead Agrena. Puck drop is at 6 p.m.
