The Westlock Midget Warriors went undefeated in their round robin pool play at Hockey Alberta’s Midget ‘C’ Provincial Championship in Whitecourt last weekend, but it wasn’t enough to bring home a banner.
The Zone 3 champs headed down the road to Whitecourt March 21-24 and came up just shy of a berth in the final, dropping their semifinal game to Smoky Lake 4-2.
“We knew they had one really skilled player and the biggest part of our plan was to shut him down,” said Warriors winger Dawson Petryshen after the game. “An unfortunate call in the first led to their first goal. We kept fighting, but it was an uphill battle from there. Our goalie, John Zeise, kept us in it for the most part, but it was a goaltending battle throughout.
“Our mindset going in was to play heavy hockey and wear them out, and it did work, but we started a bit too late.”
Westlock goals from Jonah Bennett and Reid Schmidt kept the score respectable, but the writing was on the wall for the Warriors.
“We outshot them 42-20 in the semi, but their goalie just stood on his head,” said coach Gil Dubrule, adding that sometimes, that’s all it comes down to. “The kids played well enough to win, but their goalie played that much better.
“We set a goal earlier in the season of going to provincials and winning. It was a big part of what our team wanted to do. They played well enough to get us through the tournament and into the semifinals, we did really well in our first three games, three totally different games. We played a very balanced game. We ran into a very hot goaltender.”
Prior to that, the Warriors won all three of their round robin match-ups against High Level (7-4), 3Cs out of Castor (2-1) , and Foremost (7-1).
“The last game, against Foremost, was a big one for our confidence. I feel like they underestimated us and we made them pay,” said Petryshen.
“We had lots of confidence because we played really well that game, it was probably the best we’ve played all year,” added Dubrule.
As the semifinal game approached Sunday morning, the seriousness of the situation became apparent and the nerves began to creep in, said Petryshen, who was in a similar situation with the midget team last year who made their way to provincials, but came home empty handed.
Petryshen is one of only several who have now aged out of minor hockey, but it was a good run while it lasted, he said.
“It was a bittersweet experience. The year itself was a bit of a rollercoaster and it sucks to lose the way we did, but all in all it’s satisfying in the fact that I managed to play all my years of minor hockey in one place. I don’t think many can say that.
“I just want to say good luck to the bantams coming up and the rest of the midgets still playing next year. The talent is there. They can go far.”
Dubrule noted that many kids on the team will likely be back to finish their minor hockey careers.
“The bulk of the players are still there, a significant amount of the core players will be there so I think they should be that much more successful next season.”
