The Westlock Senior Warriors are still looking for their first win of the North Central Hockey League season.
The Warriors, now 0-6, came out on the wrong end of an 11-8 Nov. 4 shootout loss to the Morinville Kings, then fell 7-4 to the Slave Lake Winterhawks Nov. 5.
“There’s still a little bit of frustration with not being able to pull out the win,” said team manager Joe Kuhar. “We just have to find a way to play a good 60 minutes and not give up on ourselves and each other.”
In Saturday’s tilt the Winterhawks opened the scoring about five minutes in on a powerplay goal and followed that with two goals in the second period before the Warriors were able to answer back with a goal of their own courtesy of Michael Ivey. The Winterhawks answered back a minute later, making the score 4-1 before the Warriors closed the second period with two powerplay goals from Taylor Heck and Jake Chizma.
The Winterhawks opened the third with a powerplay goal five minutes in. Nathan Brown snuck a goal in with seven minutes left in regulation time to bring the score to 5-4, but the Winterhawks knocked two more past Chris Kuhar to close the game 7-4.
In Morinville Friday, the Warriors came out of the gate swinging, scoring three unanswered goals in the first 12 minutes before Morinville snuck a powerplay goal. The Warriors’ John Lawley answered back in the last minute with an unassisted goal, making the score 4-1 going into the second.
The Kings took command in the second, scoring four unanswered goals, two within 12 seconds of each other. Warrior Kolbe Waldner brought them back into the game in the last two minutes of the period with a powerplay goal assisted by Michael Ivey and Lawley.
However, Morinville managed to ride its momentum into the third, putting another six goals into the net.
Ivey snuck a goal in with five minutes left in the game and Ryan Nelles followed with a goal of his own 20 seconds later, which Ivey matched with three minutes left to bring the score to 10-8.
But the clock was not on the Warriors’ side, as the Kings scored an empty-net goal in the last minute of regulation to close the game at 11-8. At the end of the battle, the Kings had outshot the Warriors 47-27.
“We had a bit of a lead and we sort of let up a bit and allowed them to come back into the game and that gave them momentum,” said Kuhar.
“We had to struggle to come back. We were close, but not close enough unfortunately.”
Kuhar noted that the team was examining a few tweaks to see if they can turn the season around.
“It’s just time for a win. We’re working towards doing whatever we can to get the monkey off our back,” said Kuhar. “We need to evaluate a few things. If that means digging down and finding a couple of players to add to the roster to make that happen, that’s what we’re looking at doing.”
The Warriors hit the ice this Saturday, Nov. 12, at home against the Rocky Mountain House Rams. The puck drops at 8 p.m.
