Westlock’s senior ‘AA’ Warriors are back above .500 in the North Central Hockey League.
The squad moved above the break-even mark with a 5-4 win over the Athabasca Aces on Jan. 10 in Athabasca. They now sit at 8-7-0 on their inaugural NCHL season, with three games to play.
To earn the win, the Warriors needed to overcome three separate one-goal deficits, scoring twice in the last 10 minutes of the game to pull out the victory.
“We didn’t have, again, our ‘A’ game, but it was enough to pull out the win,” said coach Joe Kuhar.
Westlock actually opened the scoring at the 15:11 mark of the first period when Jonathan Cyr scored with an assist from Wayne Juniper.
That goal broke the malaise that hung over the early stages of the game.
“It was a slow start,” Kuhar said. “We had to find our legs in the first period.”
Unfortunately, the Warriors were unable to maintain their lead, as the Aces scored with 9.9 seconds to play to tie things 1-1 after 20 minutes.
In the second, Kuhar said the Warriors were able to get back to playing their game. However, it was the Aces who opened the scoring, taking a 2-1 lead 3:51 into the frame.
Westlock would get that one back at 4:59, when Alex Belzevick scored with an assist from Evan Kuhar.
An Aces goal at 11:44 made it 3-2 Athabasca, but Kuhar’s goal with 12 seconds to play sent the teams into the second intermission tied 3-3. Clayton Herzog and Mike Ivey had the assists.
Once the third started, the teams couldn’t get much offence going until more than seven minutes had elapsed.
That was when the Aces scored at 7:12 to go up 4-3.
The Warriors weren’t to be outdone, and fought back with a Belzevick goal at 12:29 to tie things 4-4. Kuhar and Tanner Sohn had the assists.
With less than two minutes left on the clock, Dave Carr scored to give the Warriors a 5-4 lead, which they were able to hold until the final buzzer sounded. Kuhar and Ivey had the assists.
Coach Kuhar said the fact the Warriors were able to fight back from three one-goal deficits shows the confidence the team has in itself to overcome adversity.
“The guys just know continuing to play hard and play their style means they’re going to be able to make things happen,” he said.
With three games left in the season, Kuhar said the team hopes to win at least two of those games.
“That should position us well to hold us where we are in the standings,” he said.
