They’re through.
A tight-fought 4-3 home-ice win over the Morinville Kings on Feb. 8 has sent the Westlock senior ‘AA’ Warriors through to the North Central Hockey League semifinals.
Their opponent? The Devon Barons, who swept aside the Slave Lake Winterhawks to book their spot in the semis.
“That was a hell of a game,” coach Joe Kuhar said to the team in the dressing room after the final buzzer sounded.
“We’re beyond where we were hoping to go. The sky’s the limit!”
During the postgame celebration, several players were heard saying Devon should be afraid of the Warriors, who are coming into their series on a hot streak.
Kuhar said he expects the Devon series to be another hard fight. The Barons won all three games against the Warriors this season, so it’s going to take a strong effort for the Warriors to win the three games they’ll need to win the best-of-five series.
Fortunately, he said he feels the Warriors are up to the challenge.
“Winning this series shows we aren’t to be taken lightly,” Kuhar said.
The Warriors had to dig deep to pull out the win.
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first period courtesy of goals by Mike Podruzny at 3:25 and Evan Kuhar at 8:00, the Warriors watched as the Kings scored two of their own within two minutes to send the game into the first intermission tied 2-2.
Kuhar’s second of the game 2:05 into the second period gave the home side a 3-2 lead, but the Kings replied midway through the period to make things 3-3 heading into the third period.
The third remained scoreless for more than 15 minutes, with both teams’ goalies standing tall and keeping the puck out.
However, the Warriors were not to be denied.
With 4:11 to play, Alex Belzevick took a pass from Kuhar and ripped a shot in off the post to put the Warriors up 4-3.
The Kings pulled their goalie late to try and find the equalizer, but were unable to score before time ran out on their season.
Coach Kuhar said he expects the semifinal series against Devon to start this weekend, but could not say for sure.
Prior to the opening faceoff, NCHL vice-president Jerry Muise presented Warriors forward Evan Kuhar with the league MVP award, as well as recognized him for being the league’s leading scorer in the regular season.
After the game, Kuhar said he was honoured by the award, but didn’t think it was that big of a deal.
“I don’t really see it as a personal award,” he said. “It’s a reflection of the team, and I was just lucky to get it.”
Also announced prior to the game were the members of the league’s all star teams.
Evan Kuhar was named a first team all star at forward, while Joe Kuhar was named the first team coach.
Taylor Sohn was named a second team all star on defence.
