Westlock’s Bantam 2 Warriors silenced the Slave Lake Thunder Jan. 19 posting a 3-1 victory.
Taking advantage of Slave Lake’s short bench, the Warriors were all over the Thunder from start to finish.
“They were short a couple players and one got kicked out in the first period,” said Kade Yeomans. “So it was 14 versus seven. They played a good game, but I think we played harder.
“Our goalie, Bredin Hallet, definitely kept us in the game.”
Following a 4-3 loss the night before in Leduc, the Warriors are now 7-3-3 in the Northern Alberta Interlock League Tier 5 with six games left in the regular season.
“We got out of our zone definitely better than in the last few games,” said head coach Warren Wylie. “We don’t have a practice before our Monday night game, so we’ll just have to play our game.”
It was a quiet first period against the Thunder, but the Warriors stirred up a storm in the second period when Eric Wylie and Ryan Medcke fed a pass to Devin McCoy, who put Westlock up 1-0 five minutes into the second period.
Josh Mackenzie found Kruz Woodcock to add to Westlock’s lead in the last two minutes of the period, then Wylie and McCoy found Yeomans 30 seconds later to put Westlock up 3-0.
The Thunder managed to strike back midway through the third period with a goal of their own, but the Warriors were solid and kept the Thunder at bay.
The team starts their 2019 Hockey Alberta Provincial Championship run this week and faced Onoway Jan. 21 at the Rotary Spirit Centre. Game 2 is set for Jan. 24 in Onoway.
“They’re a tough team to play, they’re a Tier 4 team and they average nine points a game,” said Yeomans. “
We definitely have to get our head in the game.”
Following, the Warriors host the Leduc Roughnecks Jan. 26 in regular season action.
