WESTLOCK – The Westlock Senior Warriors are one win away from an improbable first-round playoff sweep of their bitter rivals, the Morinville Kings.
The Warriors began their North Central Hockey League best-of-five opening round playoff series Feb. 5 at the Rotary Spirit Centre with a solid 5-4 win over the Kings, then followed up with a stunning 6-4 victory 24 hours later at the Morinville Leisure Centre. Game 3 is slated for Feb. 12 back in Morinville, while Game 4, if needed, is pencilled in for Feb. 19 at the RSC.
Despite losing both regular season games to the Kings and finishing eight points back in the regular season standings, captain Mike Ivey said they liked the match up and relished the chance to face Morinville. Although the high-flying Kings have been an offensive juggernaut and finished second in league scoring with 74 goals-for, Ivey knew they could skate with them but needed to play sound, physical hockey. Goaltending has also been key to the 2-0 series lead, said Ivey, with netminder Jordan Brand turning aside 62 of the 70 shots he’s faced.
“We don’t want to give them anything now. The toughest thing to do is to close out a team. They have their backs against the wall and have nothing to lose,” said Ivey, adding they’re looking forward to a week of rest before next Saturday’s tilt.
“And Jordie battled and stayed huge for us in both games and we helped him out a bit, too.”
Although Morinville scored first in the Friday-night tilt at the RSC, it was the Warriors who dominated the first period with three-straight goals from Gerald Desjarlais, Ryan Nelles and Kyle Dronyk. Seventy seconds into the second period Morinville closed the gap to within a goal, but markers from Dronyk and Desjarlais gave the Warriors all the cushion they’d need — the Kings netted two in the third during a 19-shot barrage after the Warriors “let our foot off the gas.”
After that tough loss Morinville came out guns blazing in Game 2 with three-straight goals in the first seven-and-a-half minutes. Momentum though is a funny thing and swung in favour of the Warriors as goals 13 seconds apart from Scott Ivey and Dronyk got them to within one. Then with 1:39 left in the frame a Morinville player covered the puck with his hand in the crease, which led to a penalty shot that Eisler converted. The same series also resulted in a four-minute high-sticking minor penalty to the same player, which led to a powerplay marker from Chris Brand with five ticks left on the clock to give them a 4-3 lead.
“It went so bad so quickly at the start of the first, but we were able to stay positive and persevere. The two at the end of the first were momentum-swinging goals for sure and was a back breaker for them,” said Ivey the day after the win.
Morinville tied the game at 15:16 in the second period, but Brett Kampjes’ goal at 12:12 put the Warriors up to stay. The nail in the coffin came with two seconds left in the frame when Dronyk connected for a powerplay goal that deflated the Kings, who only managed seven shots in the final 20 minutes.
