The Westlock Bantam Warriors quest for a provincial title ended in heartbreak March 19.
The Warriors were riding high with a perfect 3-0-0 round-robin record at the Bantam ‘D’ Provincials in Hanna March 16-19, but came out on the wrong end of a 2-1 score in the semifinal versus the Boyle Blazers.
“Provincials is a real marathon and it’s a tough, tough go down here,” said head coach Barry Brost Sunday afternoon following the defeat.
“We were in a tough pool that had some good teams and we played well, the kids gave it their all. Today things just didn’t line up.”
After the Warriors swept through the round robin with three-straight wins and 19 goals for, versus only five allowed, the boys met their match in the semifinal that was a defensive struggle from the get go.
Following a scoreless first period, the Blazers took the lead at the second period’s halfway mark. But the Warriors weren’t ready to let go of their title hopes as Jacob Reagan tied the game three minutes later.
Finally, just over a minute into the third period, Boyle posted what proved to be the game-winning goal.
The Warriors couldn’t catch a break to tie it up and walked away from provincials with heavy hearts.
“We had a goal disallowed with a couple minutes left in the game, hit two crossbars at the end of the game and then they came down and we took a penalty and they shot and scored on the power play,” Brost said. “The hockey gods were not lined up with us today.”
It was a surprising loss for the Warriors who championed against their opponents in the round robin.
The Warriors were hot in Friday morning’s game against Duchess, soaring to 5-2 win.
The Warriors came flying out of the gate with the first goal of the game by Jacob Reagan, while Cole Beaver knocked in goal two at the halfway mark of the second period. Duchess came back ready to fight and knocked in their first goal in the last 30 seconds of the period on the powerplay.
But the Warriors kept Duchess down and sniped in three more goals in the third.
Jonah Bennett slid in a third point for the Warriors five minutes in, followed by quick tallies from Jonathen Servage and Reagan. The Warriors held off their opponents for the rest of the tilt in a 5-1 victory.
Saturday morning’s 6-2 victory against Delburne continued the winning streak for the Warriors.
Westlock shut out Delburne in the first period and took a 3-0 lead at the end of the first 20 minutes.
Bennett knocked in a fourth goal on a power play in the second period followed by Delburne’s first goal six minutes later.
Delburne came back in the third for their second goal, but the Warriors capped that with two more goals from Zaidyn Pipke for a 6-2 finish.
The round robin came to a close Saturday as the Warriors annihilated High Level 8-2, striking for four goals in first.
High Level finally got on the board three minutes into the second, but the Warriors pushed hard in the third as Reagan rung up two more. The troops then rallied behind Servage as he clocked in a second goal shortly after.
High Level managed to net one more down the stretch to make the final 8-2.
That win qualified the Warriors for the semifinal round Sunday morning against the Boyle Blazers.
“We were definitely told we were the No. 1 team there and just didn’t get it done,” Brost said. “We’re definitely disappointed, but I’m very proud of the boys and the effort that they give and we have no regrets.”
Despite the loss, the boys will always remember the good times they had at the tournament and throughout the season.
The club is still in the hunt for Tier 2 1660 Hockey League title and faced Slave Lake on the road March in Game 2 — the Warriors lost Game 1 1-0.
A win there would force a deciding Game 3 to played in Westlock March 22
“I think we’ll build a bunch of good memories off this and the kids will remember this. It hurts but you know what, new friendships are made every hockey game we play and we’ll be better people and better hockey players because of it.”
