The Westlock Senior ‘AA’ Warriors were in tough last weekend, dropping their first two league games of 2018.
The squad fell 8-1 Friday night game at the Rotary Spirit Centre to the Daysland Northstars, then fell 8-1 in a Saturday night road game versus the Bonnyville Pontiacs to drop to 2-8-0 and last place in the North Central Hockey League.
Though it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying, said head coach and captain Mike Ivey as the Warriors outshot the Northstars 49-43.
“We’ve got to start burying. We are out chancing teams and we have for a good chunk of the season actually but we’re unable to score goals right now, for sure. We get all these chances and then we give one up right after.
“It’s tough because we make pretty big mistakes and that’s how it ends up in the back of our net.”
The Warriors were down by three in the closing minutes of the first period when they thought they scored their first goal, but it was disallowed because the net was off its pegs. It wasn’t until the very last second of the middle period that Westlock was able to capitalize on a chance on the power play by Ivey, with assists from Derek Teske and Ryan Nelles.
Shots came fast and furious in the third period as Daysland ran into more penalty trouble, but the Warriors were unable to convert several chances into goals, leaving them to dwell on an 8-1 loss going into Bonnyville on Saturday.
“We’re just going to try to bring the same energy,” said Ivey. “I thought we worked hard but we’ve got to start capitalizing and tighten up our D-zone, and quit giving up odd man rushes.”
The Warriors were hoping for a change of pace when they visited the Pontiacs at the Centennial Centre in Bonnyville Saturday. The game stayed close in the first period with two goals from the Bonnyville side as well as a goal by Warrior Scott Ivey, assisted by Taylor Heck, leaving the score 2-1 Bonnyville after one period.
Things fell apart from that point though as the Warriors were unable to respond to one more goal against them in the second and five more in the third, leaving the score 8-1. The Warriors were outshot 53-28.
The Warriors play two home games this coming weekend at the Rotary Spirit Centre. First up are the Devon Barons on Jan. 12 at 8:30 p.m. The next night, Jan. 13, they’ll face the first-place Eckville Eagles.
