The Westlock Midget Sabres came out on top of the Camrose Cougars at the Jubilee Arena in Westlock last Friday night, encouraged by an enthusiastic crowd of more than 100 people.
The local boys didn’t get the win without a fight, however. The 9-7 hockey game looked like it might have gone either way, but Westlock’s momentum in the second and third periods carried them to the victory.
“It was a good win. The guys held heir heads up high and played smart hockey,” coach Jeff Copeland said.
The scoring opened early in the first period, with two goals giving the Cougars an early lead. Westlock’s Eric Hardinge scored two in quick succession a few minutes later to tie things up.
The Cougars scored again with about three minutes left, but Cam Teske took that one back to end the period 3-3.
Less than a minute into the second, Teske scored again for the Sabres to take the lead. His goal was followed by three more from teammates Kevin Mayowski, James Hodder and Chase Rau, before the Cougars got their only goal of the period for a score of 7-4.
“In the second period, they just started playing together. We got the momentum and just went with it,” Copeland said.
That momentum carried on into the third period, with Hardinge and Teske each earning their third goals of the game to widen the lead to 9-4.
Camrose wasn’t finished yet, and rallied late in the third period to score three goals in the last three minutes. Fortunately for the Sabres, the Cougars’ effort wasn’t enough to turn the tides.
The win puts Westlock back over the 50 per cent winning mark at 2-1 so far this season a record Copeland said he’s happy enough with.
“It’s better than no wins and three losses,” he laughed. “We didn’t play as well last weekend, but the guys are starting to feel better.”
While the momentum is swinging back in favour of the Sabres, Copeland said the last three minutes of Friday’s game weren’t ideal.
“It shouldn’t have been a tight game,” he said. “We let it down in the last five minutes and let them score a few goals.”
There was no love lost between the competitors, either, with things getting a bit chippy and a total of 50 penalty minutes throughout the game.
“With the score starting to get tighter and tighter, we took a few different hits trying to get momentum back.” Copeland said.
Three players were injured during the course of the game – Trevor Anderson, Cody Cobler and Chase Rau – something Copeland said might affect the team down the road.
“We’ll see what happens with the guys we had hurt there, and go from there,” he said.
