The Westlock Warriors Atom hockey club ended up losing the Hockey Alberta Zone 3 provincial tournament against the Whitecourt Wolverines despite winning their second match on Jan. 30 9-5.
The two-game total-point series had begun on Jan. 27 and ended up 12-11 in Whitecourt’s favour.
The Wolverines managed to win the series thanks to a lucky bounce three minutes into a sudden death overtime following regulation time.
“Today’s game was a great game,” said Warriors head coach Jeff Cuthbertson after the Jan. 30 match.
“The kids showed up, they played as a team. Overtime is one of those things where if you get a bad bounce there’s nothing you can do, you don’t get a second chance on a bad break,” he added.
“We played hard,” said Kohyn Pipke, who was the Warriors’ player of the game. “It was just a lucky bounce at the end.”
Whitecourt opened the scoring at just under 11 minutes into the first period with a shot from Jamie Rhynold, only to be answered back by a bullet from Westlock’s Steve Andrusiak.
Westlock would score another four goals before Whitecourt answered back, first a pair of zingers by Cole Fedorvich, followed by two goals courtesy of Tate Cuthbertson. That put the Warriors up 5-1 early in the second period.
Whitecourt’s Brayden Klein snuck a shot past the Warriors’ goalie Cooper Buchko, but Blake Borduzak notched another goal just a few minutes later.
The two teams had sized each other up by the time the third period rolled out. Whitecourt added two goals to the board, first by Camden Fowler and then Josh Werzun before the Warriors answered back with a trio of their own thanks to the efforts of team captain Gavyn Berube, Pipke and Isaac Edwards.
The Wolverines were able to save themselves when Sam Charko scored in the last minute of regulation time, forcing the sudden death overtime. Whitecourt’s Cash Hunt managed to net a goal to give the Wolverines the series.
“Those kids earned it today,” said Cuthbertson. “Whitecourt’s a great hockey team, they’ve got a couple of fantastic kids. There weren’t a lot of penalties in today’s game. It was a good effort from both teams.”
