The Westlock Senior ‘AA’ Warriors are 4-10-0-1 in North Central Hockey League after a weekend road split.
The Warriors hit the road Friday night, Dec. 16, to face the Devon Barons in what turned out to be an ugly, fight-filled 7-0 loss.
“The game was a very physical one,” said team manager Joe Kuhar. “The third period was more of a brawl than a game.”
The team battled hard, with a number of after-the-whistle hits and several fights, the Warriors decided it was better to take the loss and get through the game without injury. Erstwhile, the Devon Barons lost two players to game misconducts for fighting.
“There’s still a rivalry there, and we were in their barn. They came at us hard,” said Kuhar. “Unfortunately we sort of backed off a bit. It came to a point where the game was just not as fun. Devon just had no respect for our players.
“There were cheap shots, and at the end of the day the guys just felt that it wasn’t worth it to get into the battles and potentially get injured. We had to still be there for the next game.”
The Warriors turned things around on Dec. 17 in Rocky Mountain House in a physical, but far classier bout that saw the Warriors walk away with two points in a 7-3 victory, although they lost assistant captain Evan Kuhar to a concussion resulting from a slapshot that struck him in the helmet.
“Time will tell … we will have to take time to determine his status. The fortunate thing is we have two-and-a-half-weeks off, so it gives him time to recover. Though at the same time, this is not his first concussion so we will have to assess where he’s at in his future.”
“You don’t want to have a third one, that’s what they say.”
The Rams opened the scoring about four minutes in, through the Warriors were able to respond quickly. Ryan Nelles scored an unassisted goal nine minutes in, which was followed by a zinger by Philip Ferenac courtesy of team captain Mike Ivey.
The second period was mostly quiet but it exploded in the last few moments after Ferenac took a pass from Nelles and put it past the Rams’ goaltender Cody Nicolay. The Rams were able to respond a minute later when Curtis Klein throw a shot past Warriors’ goaltender Chris Kuhar.
Kuhar himself earned an assist within the next minute, feeding a pass to Taylor Heck who took the puck across the ice to score for the Warriors. The Rams were able to answer back with a shorthanded goal right at the buzzer ending the second period, closing the period with Westlock leading 4-3.
The Warriors dominated the third period, first with Ryan Archer getting fed by Ferenac and Nelles to score three minutes in, then Nelles getting an early present from Ferenac and Ivey to score with just 11 minutes left in the game. Mario Dube took a pass from Nelles with just under seven minutes left in the third period to seal the Warriors’ decisive victory 7-3.
“We played well, stuck up for ourselves and it was a hard battle,” said Kuhar. “Rocky is a team that plays a physical game, especially at home. You can’t take them lightly. We dominated in the third period.”
The Warriors will now enjoy a long break over the Christmas holiday, reuniting for practice Jan. 3 to prepare for their return to the ice in a Jan. 7 home-ice match-up against Edson.
