It took three tries, but the Westlock Warriors have their first victory of the season — an up-and-down 8-7 home win over the Whitecourt Wild.
The come-from-behind Saturday-night win at the Rotary Spirit Centre boosts the club to 1-2 in the North Central Hockey League with nine games left in the regular season.
“We needed that one,” said head coach Mike Ivey over cheers from the locker room.
“That was a good battle. We’ve been due for a win, so everyone’s excited. We definitely deserved this, we’ve been through a lot.”
Coming out of the gate skating fast and hitting hard, the Warriors opened the scoring three minutes in on a powerplay goal from Zac Schram, fed by Corey Mercier and Ivey.
Whitecourt was able to tie the game up early in the second period but the Warriors rebounded a minute later on another powerplay when Mike Ivey caught a pass from Scott Ivey and Ryan Nelles to put Westlock up 2-1.
A few minutes later, the Wild were able to tie the game up again. Westlock re-took the lead in the last six minutes of the second period after Schram caught a pass from Gord Bell and Taylor Heck to put the Warriors up 3-2, but the Wild responded with a goal of their own less than a minute later.
Whitecourt snuck a goal in past Dylen Starman to take the lead, going into the third period up 4-3.
The shootout intensified in the final frame as Whitecourt opened the scoring three minutes in, putting them up 5-3.
The Warriors kept their cool though, systematically rushing to the net before Bell caught a cross-ice pass from Philip Ferenac to cut the deficit. The Ferenac-Bell duo continued to work their magic a minute later, this time with Bell feeding Ferenac to tie the game 5-5.
In the closing 10 minutes, Whitecourt retook the lead off a lucky break and then put a second shot past Starman 20 seconds later, to take a 7-5 advantage.
However, Ferenac caught a pass from Nelles to cut Whitecourt’s lead and the Warriors tied the game up a few minutes on a powerplay when Brady Ducharme caught a pass from Bell and Jake Chizma.
Then, with 45 seconds left in the third period, Nathan Brown caught a pass from Chizma and Heck to put Westlock back in front.
The Wild pulled their goaltender to try and even the score, but the lead held.
“We played with them all game, but they got a couple of lucky bounces and that hurt us quite a bit,” said Ivey.
“That third period was unreal. We put a new line together with Nelles, Bell and Ferenac that had really good chemistry. It was awesome to see them get together and get some points.”
Up next for the Warriors is a home rematch against the Morinville Kings on Nov. 10 before they embark on a four-game road trip that begins in Daysland Nov. 18.
“That will be a good test for us,” said Ivey. “Hopefully we can keep the momentum going a little bit.”
