Westlock’s midget Sabres started its league playoff run on a positive note over the weekend, beating out Barrhead’s Renegades 5-4 Friday night.
The Sabres out ranked the competition in the regular season, placing top of its tier compared to the Renegades’ last-place finish. Despite the standings, Sabers coach Jeff Copeland said the team was given a run for its money in the Feb. 23 game.
“Barrhead came to play,” he said, adding the Renegades managed to score a goal right out of the gates, putting the Sabres at a disadvantage.
“We kind of got back to our game later on in the first period; we tied it up and got ahead 2-1,” he said.
This momentum didn’t last long as Copeland said the team slowed its pace in the second period, despite being able to score three goals to lead the game 5-3 heading into the final period.
“We weren’t playing our game the whole game,” he said. “I’m not happy with the way they played.”
Several players were absent from the ice as a result of injury or suspension. Copeland said all except one player should be back on the ice in coming games.
“If we can keep all our players healthy and not injured, we should, to me, we should win (league playoffs), but we do have some tough competition ahead of us,” he said.
He said the teams to look out for are Onoway and Leduc — both of which were in the middle of the pack in Tier 3 standings. Ultimately, he said no one can predict the outcome of playoffs.
“In playoff games, every team sort of steps up their game,” he said.
The Sabres have already qualified for provincial playoffs, which are held in Millet, Alta. from March 15-18.
“It feels good to qualify. The guys are excited to play,” he said. “We have a couple more weekends of playoffs left and then we’ll worry about provincials.”
In provincial playoffs, the Sabres will be met with new competition. Copeland said he regularly checks various team statistics to get an idea what kind of competition the team will face off against.
“There’s a couple Tier 2 teams that are coming into it, which will probably give us some competition and looking at some of the Tier 3 teams, they’re pretty much even with us,” he said.
He said he expects the team to do well in provincials, adding it just needs to avoid penalty minutes and needs to stick to the game plan.
The game marked the first match for any Westlock team in the 1660 Hockey League playoffs, which will continue until mid-March, followed by provincial playoffs.
