WESTLOCK - The Westlock Senior Warriors couldn’t maintain their hot start and watched an early 2-0 advantage evaporate as they surrendered five-unanswered goals, including three powerplay markers, in a chippy 6-3 Nov. 26 home loss to the Red Deer Rustlers.
The Saturday-night defeat at the Rotary Spirit Centre (RSC) drops the club to 4-3-0-1 in the North Central Hockey League, good enough for fifth overall and a point back of the fourth-place Morinville Kings who stand at 5-3-1-0 and a point ahead of the Rustlers, who occupy sixth at 4-3-0-0 and have a game in hand.
A powerplay marker from Bryce Van Brabant, named the game’s second star, with 8:30 remaining in the opening period, followed by a goal from Garry Mindus just over two minutes later staked the Warriors to a short-lived, 2-0 lead.
But with less than a minute to go in the period, the Rustlers potted their first of three powerplay goals on the night, then dominated the second with two more goals with the man advantage, plus an even-strength marker, to go ahead 4-2. Forty-seven seconds into the final frame the Rustlers struck again to go up 5-2, while a powerplay goal from Jesse Morrison with 7:04 left to play made it 5-3 — the Rustlers finished off the night with an empty-netter with 1:41 left on the clock. Between the pipes, goalie Jordan Brand turned aside 36 of 41 shots he faced and was tagged with the loss.
Captain Mike Ivey said they gave Red Deer way too many chances with the man advantage to have a chance to win as the Rustlers went three-for-eight on the powerplay, while the Warriors went two-for-eight — on the night, the clubs combined for 56 minutes in penalties.
“Our second period had no flow and there were a ton of penalties and really that was the difference. They got those powerplay goals in the second and that really hurt us,” said Ivey. “I think we took it to them early on and overall I thought we played a pretty good game, but the second was tough for sure. Against them we need to stay out of the box as they have a really good powerplay. When you give them that many looks, they’re going to capitalize.”
Looking forward the Warriors are on the road for the next two weekends and will face the 1-3-0-2 Devon Barons Dec. 3, then take on the Kings Dec. 10 in Morinville. Although the Barons are in second-last place in the NCHL, Ivey said they won’t take them lightly.
“We’ve got some big games coming up for sure. The game against Devon will be massive,” Ivey continued. “They’re record isn’t great, but they’ve been playing teams really tough and we’re expecting a physical game. It’s going to be a battle against them and we need those two points pretty badly, especially with such a short season.”
