Grit, determination and a last-minute goal helped the senior ‘AA’ Warriors snap their two-game losing streak.
Following their 3-2 victory over the Morinville Kings at the Rotary Spirit Centre Dec. 14, the club improved to 7-4-2 in the North Central Hockey League
“It was a bit of a tough skid before this. I think we deserved some breaks,” said head coach Mike Ivey, who scored the game-winning goal with less than a minute to play.
“Last weekend we didn’t get any breaks, so it was nice to get a few tonight.”
Morinville came out of the gate strong, scoring 13 minutes into the first period, but Ivey and Kolbe Waldner found David Carr with four minutes left on the clock to tie the game 1-1.
Seven minutes into the second the Warriors took the lead when Rylan Stoddart fed the puck to Josh Kalliel who fired it past the Morinville goaltender.
However, the Kings weren’t conquered yet and tied the game with six minutes left in the second.
Things almost unravelled for Westlock in the third period after a series of penalties gave Morinville several man-advantages and one two-man advantage, but Warriors goalie Jordan Brand held strong.
Then with 35 seconds left, Taylor Heck and Nathan Brown fed Ivey who made no mistake for the game winner.
“I was pretty out of breath, but it felt good. I didn’t realize how much time we had left at first. But it’s nice that we can get rewarded as a team for our work, the guys have been battling hard,” said Ivey.
“Jordie was fantastic in net as usual. They outplayed us in the last five, but for the most part we controlled this hockey game, we just couldn’t score.”
The Warriors are now on their holiday break until the new year, when they host the Devon Barons Jan. 4.
