It was a valiant effort, but the Westlock Senior ‘AA’ Warriors fell just short of qualifying for North Central Hockey League (NCHL) playoffs after splitting their final two regular season games.
The team needed two wins and some very good luck to keep their season alive, during a two-game home stand on Friday, Jan. 15 against the Edson Ice and on Saturday, Jan. 16 against the Tofield Satellites.
“We knew going into this game we needed the stars to align to make the playoffs,” said Warriors’ Rod Kaliel.
Westlock needed to win both games and have the Morinville Kings lose two straight in order to clinch a playoff berth.
Things were looking positive for the Warriors at the start of the weekend after an 8-2 victory over the Edson Ice on Friday night the Rotary Spirit Centre.
Edson hit the ice with a short squad but made the Warriors work hard for each goal.
The teams fought evenly for two periods, and headed into the third with Westlock ahead 3-2. The Warriors mixed things up in the third to break down the Edson defence and put up five goals.
“It’s tough to get up for games when there’s a team with a short squad. We had a rough couple of periods, but we put it back together at the end,” Kaliel said.
“We shuffled a few of the lines for the third period and it seemed to get a bit of chemistry.”
The shuffle worked, and Westlock put three away in the third minute of play. Edson rallied, but weren’t able to match the Warriors’ intensity.
Kaliel said he was hopeful the win would carry through to Saturday night’s game against Tofield
Ultimately the Warriors fell 7-4, but for at least one period, it looked like Kaliel would be right.
Good hustle kept the Satelites from winding up and the Warriors outshot Tofield 21-11.
Tight passes kept Tofield off balance, but strong goaltending left the scorecard blank for both teams at the end of the first.
“Without a doubt we dominated play in the first period,” said head coach Joe Kuhar.
Westlock came into the second skating visibly slower, giving the Satelites time to regroup and focus.
As the game wore on, Tofield’s patience paid off.
Westlock slid out of position and the breakdown in strategy cost them dearly, as Tofield put three away in a quick flurry from 7:25 to 4:16.
“We started breaking down, cheating on our systems,” Kuhar said.
“With a team like [Tofield] that’s very good at their system and playing that system, you can’t make those kinds of mistakes, because they capitalize.”
The quick turnaround in momentum caught the Warriors off guard, but by the time they pulled together the damage was done.
Coming into the third down 4-0, Westlock played a physical game and used force, not speed, to chip away.
With heavy forechecking and frustration on the Westlock bench, tempers spilled over and a brawl broke out early in the period, shorting both teams.
The chaos opened things up for Westlock’s offence and the Warriors began scoring at 17:41.
The Warriors kept pressing, but the Satelites answered, holding on for a 7-4 win.
“It’s tough when you come out against a team that may be short of players but at the same time comes out with very strong players,” Kuhar said.
“At the end of the day, it’s a reflection, a little bit, of what our season went like. It’s been tough all the way through.”
Nothing came easy in 2015 for Westlock, who finish this year fifth in the North Division of the NCHL with a 6-10 record.
But, says Kuhar, Saturday’s defeat and the coming year offer new opportunity to rebuild.
“It’s a time to rethink and look at the team and maybe look at rebuilding the situation going forward for next year,” Kuhar said.
“We’re going to stick with our core players and our core team, but we need to bring some first and second liners to the table that we lost last season.
“Overall, it was sort of a disappointing season, for sure.
