The Westlock Midget Sabres had mixed results last weekend, but ended on a high note in their two games against the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers.
The two teams faced off Friday night at the Jubilee Arena and the Sabres struggled in an 8-3 loss. Saturday morning they played another match, this time in Fort Saskatchewan, and came out on top 6-2.
“The guys came today ready to play,” assistant coach Dan Mayowski said after Saturday’s game. “Everybody skated hard, everybody had their head in the game and everybody had a really good game. It was a good effort by every player to get the win.”
Things were not looking as rosy for the Sabres after Friday night’s game, which saw the local team fall apart.
The first period was fairly strong for the Sabres, who gave up just one goal to go into the intermission down 1-0.
The Rangers netted two more within the first 10 minutes of the second period before Cam Teske found the back of the net to put the Sabres on the board.
Unfortunately, Westlock took some bad penalties and things get out of hand shortly thereafter, as the Rangers two scored two more goals before the period was over.
The third period went a little bit better, but the Sabres still ended up being outscored 3-2. The obvious highlight among the Sabres was Teske, who scored both goals in the third period for a hat trick.
Mayowski said Friday’s loss was a “minor setback,” and came down to the attitude of the payers on the ice — taking so many penalties didn’t help things, either.
“We didn’t come to play hockey tonight and had a lot of holes to fill when we were short-handed for most of the game,” he said. “It was just an off night … we just didn’t play well.”
Assistant coach Darrell Teske said he felt the loss might have been a positive for the Sabres, serving as kind of a wake-up call after last weekend’s formidable victory over Barrhead and win at their home tournament.
“We’ve been pretty lopsided, so it’s good to have this,” he said.
It obviously did serve as a wakeup call, as the Sabres turned things around on Saturday. Mayowski said he appreciates the character of the players, considering they were able to turn things around and quickly follow up the loss with a win.
“They’re quite resilient, that they’re able to bounce back from the loss from yesterday to the win today,” he said.
The Sabres have another busy week ahead of them, playing in Barrhead on Thursday night, in Lamont on Friday night, and then hosting Barrhead on Sunday.
