The Westlock Midget Warriors came out to an early lead over the Warburg Mustangs last Friday night and held on to post a 5-4 win.
This was the team’s second regular-season win at the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre, giving them some good momentum right at the beginning of the season.
While the win is a good sign, coach Jeff Copeland said there is still much that the boys will have to work on as the season progresses — some of which was evident in the latter part of the game.
“It was good off the start — we still have to kind of work on some of the stuff we let down near the end there,” he said. “The team took some bad penalties and we’ll have to work on that and just keep going.”
Fortunately the late-game penalties didn’t cost them, and the Warriors were able to maintain the lead for most of the game.
The first period started out slow, but the pace picked up quickly after the first 10 minutes: Koben Hammett scored the first goal with about nine minutes left. The Mustangs tied things up a few minutes later, but the Warriors regained the lead with a Josh Mowat goal near the end of the period.
The second period was all about the Warriors, and Andrew van de Ligt scoring a hat trick within the first 10 minutes, interrupted by just one Mustang goal, to give Westlock a comfortable 5-2 lead.
Unfortunately the Warriors couldn’t score again in the last half of the game, but yielded two Mustang goals while unsuccessfully killing penalties. The last two minutes of the game saw the Warriors again on the penalty kill, which was ultimately successful leading to the 5-4 win.
Copeland said all his players know they have some work to do this season, but getting some early wins will make the going a lot easier.
“It’s a work in progress this year and the guys are really enjoying it. Hopefully the winning just keeps on going,” he said.
The Warriors found themselves in Tier 5 of the 1660 Hockey League this season — a position Copeland said he’s comfortable with for now.
“We’re a young team with a lot of learning and a lot of new experiences for these guys this year,” he said. “It would be nice to move up a tier and try to challenge ourselves a bit more but as of right now, this is where we’re sitting.”
