It looked bleak for the Westlock Senior ‘AA’ Warriors as they headed into the third period against the Slave Lake Winterhawks last Saturday night, but they turned things around in short order.
After facing a 3-1 deficit at the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre, the Warriors came out in the third period with renewed vigour to mount an impressive three-goal comeback for a 4-3 win.
The victory improves the club’s North Central Hockey League record to 5-3, which puts them atop the NCHL’s North Division, and keeps their record at home unblemished.
“It’s really awesome. We were flat the first two periods and just couldn’t generate any momentum. Guys were frustrated and holding the stick too hard,” coach Joe Kuhar said.
“In the third we mixed up the first two lines just to try to create some spark, and it worked. That generated some momentum and took us through the third period.”
The Winterhawks came out strong, scoring two goals within the first 13 minutes before the Warriors could get in the game, but late goal by Tanner Sehn gave the Warriors a bit of a boost going into the intermission.
“They came at us hard right from the get go, right out of the gate. We weren’t maybe ready for that,” Kuhar said.
The Warriors were looking to even things out in the second period, but just past the two-minute mark, the Winterhawks potted another one to widen the lead to two goals.
Despite generating their fair share of scoring opportunities, the Warriors couldn’t bounce back. Adding to the problem, they spent a lot of time killing penalties in the second half of that period.
“Tonight, and I don’t want to take it away from the refereeing, but it seemed like any little call was going against us,” Kuhar said. “We got into some penalty trouble and it just caught us on the short side.”
In the third period, however, things quickly turned around. Alex Belzevick scored within the first minute, which very obviously lit a spark in the Warriors.
From then on, it was nearly constant offensive pressure, under which the Winterhawks ultimately caved.
A few minutes later, Evan Kuhar found the back of the net for the tying goal, and with just over 10 minutes left to play, he scored the game winner as well.
Coach Kuhar said being able to stay undefeated on home ice this season is a real confidence booster for the team, and possibly the highlight of the night.
“The momentum, excitement and enthusiasm here… we’ve got some energy here and we believe hard that we should win at home and give the crowd a good game to watch,” he said.
“We pride ourselves in a home win, for sure.”
The Warriors will have the opportunity to keep that home pride going this Friday at 8:30 p.m., when the Morinville Kings will try their luck at the Spirit Centre.
