The Westlock Warriors took the Rocky Rams to the mat repeatedly last Saturday night with a dominant 11-4 victory in Rocky Mountain House.
The win puts the Westlock Warriors at 10-1 on the season, with a comfortable three-point lead over the second-place Morinville Kings in the North Central Hockey League.
What makes the win even more impressive is some of the team’s key scorers, like Evan Kuhar, were not on the ice — something coach Joe Kuhar attributes to the impressive depth on this team.
“We’ve got some momentum going,” he said. “The guys are clicking now and it seems like it doesn’t matter who we’ve got playing together now, the guys are making things happen.”
And all across the board, the Warriors were making things happen. Zachary Schram had a standout performance with a whopping five points coming from a hat trick plus two assists.
That in itself is pretty impressive, until you consider the performance of the other scoring line.
“That one line really clicked with Gord Bell, Derek Kolzumi and Levis Monfette,” Kuhar said. “They were able to capitalize on the opportunities.”
All told that line notched 12 points, with each of the three coming away with two goals and two assists.
And while some of the veterans on the team rose to the occasion, Kuhar said he was particular impressed with one of the team’s rookies who got a point on the board as well.
“Brady Ducharme had a stellar game, probably a standout game of his own,” he said. “It’s really encouraging to see that a newcomer, a rookie this year, showed a lot of grit and didn’t back down.”
The Warriors won each of the three period quite decisively, with scores of 4-2, 3-0 and 4-2 giving Westlock the commanding win.
Kuhar said the team did get into a bit of penalty trouble in the second period, with game misconducts doled out to two Rams and two Warriors after a fight in the second period.
The fight was precipitated after a Rams forward Wyatt Fraser leveled a bodycheck at Schram’s head, earning a match penalty for his efforts — a call he didn’t like.
“He just went a little ballistic, broke away from the linesman and ended up in a fight with Mike Ivey and that precipitated a little activity there,” Kuhar said.
As a result of the fight, Ivey and Alex Orr may be out for the next game as well.
The next action for the Warriors will be this Friday in Whitecourt before the Warriors return to the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre on Saturday to host Edson.
