Westlock’s Midget Warriors posted a perfect 3-0 weekend that included a victory over Rivičre Qui Barre in Round 2 of the provincial Zone 3 playoffs.
After defeating Slave Lake and Strathcona in 1660 Hockey League Midget Tier 2 action at the Rotary Spirit Centre Friday and Saturday, the Warriors defeated the Rivičre Qui Barre Knights 5-1 Sunday in Game 2 of second round of the Zone 3 playoffs, taking the series by a combined 9-3 score.
The victory means the Warriors will now face Hinton in the Zone 3 semifinal and if they’re able to win that match they’ll face Spruce Grove for the right to compete at the Midget ‘C’ Provincial Championships slated for March 22-26 in Rimbey.
“The boys came out to play today,” said head coach Rick Dutchuk. “They came out hard and didn’t let up.”
The weekend started with the Warriors blowing out the Slave Lake Thunder 12-0 Feb. 9.
“We had a good start at the front and they just couldn’t get back after,” said Warriors forward Zaidyn Pipke.
“We beat them with speed, with a good fore check and back check.”
With the Warriors firing on all cylinders, Joshua Reagan potted four goals, while Jacob Reagan had two and Pipke, James Oloske, Addison Weir, Sheldon McCoy, Aiden Schmidt and Brenden Gerig all netted singles.
“A lot of energy comes into shorthanded goals,” said assistant coach Braden Conquergood. “We always tell the boys to start aggressive and they did it. In the first few minutes of the game we were already up and that keeps the momentum of the game going.”
Things almost got away from the Warriors in their Feb. 10 home tilt against Strathcona though. After taking a 2-0 lead courtesy of Gerig and Weir, Westlock let their guard down and Strathcona managed to rebound to make the score 4-3 by the end of the second period.
Westlock had to work hard to stay in the game as Strathcona battled back to tie the game in the third period.
The boys almost lost the lead in the final minutes of the game after a five-minute major kept their penalty-killing unit on the ice. Strathcona snuck the puck past Westlock’s goaltender Shawn Dopson but the goal was called back.
Westlock sealed the deal a minute later after Jacob Reagan went in on a breakaway and blasted the puck in to put them up 7-6 with just over a minute in regulation.
Strathcona pulled their goalie but the Warriors held on for the win.
“It was a lot closer than it needed to be, we beat this team easily the last couple of times we played them. We got up and we took our foot off the gas,” said Dutchak.
“Then with the five-minute major at the end, the nice thing for us is our penalty killers. If it wasn’t for them, we would have been in trouble.”
Captain Sheldon McCoy admitted it wasn’t the team’s prettiest performance.
“Our first period was pretty good, but I think we got too confident in the second,” he said. “We weren’t skating, we weren’t passing… we just weren’t trying hard enough. Our goalie was what kept us in it.”
Next up for the Warriors is a Feb. 23 versus the CNN Spurs to wrap 1660 regular season play. Playoffs are expected to begin in March.
