Westlock’s Senior ‘AA’ Warriors are heading back to the drawing board after a rough 6-2 loss to the Devon Barons Jan. 4 at the Rotary Spirit Centre.
While the club didn’t fall in the North Central Alberta Hockey League standings, the team’s 7-4-2 record has it in sixth out of nine teams.
“This one would have been a really good one to win, we would like to climb and get home ice in the playoffs,” said head coach Mike Ivey, who spent the last 17 minutes of the game in the dressing room following a fight with the Barons’ captain.
“That’s a guy I’ve been battling with for a long time. He’s a tough kid, but he hits pretty high and hurt a couple of our guys. I wish I had gotten a few more shots in.”
Devon got the jump early, scoring two goals in the first period.
The Warriors were able to regroup in the second when Nic Bourgeois found Nathan Brown five minutes in to put Westlock on the board.
Four minutes later, Connor Boyd and Mike Ivey moved the puck to Scott Ivey, who tied the game at two.
But the wild second period was far from over as Devon responded with three goals of their own.
They added one more to seal the deal in the dying minutes of the third period to make the final 6-2.
Despite the loss, coach Ivey praised his team.
“It was a tough first period, but I thought we took control in the second. They were reeling and we had all the momentum, but we had a couple of tough mistakes and that was the game right there,” he said.
“We had really good control, we were hitting and we were going. We have got to limit our mistakes.
“Our goalie, Jordan Brand was great and Brett Bujold really played hard. If we play that physical, hard working style like we did in the second for 60 minutes we can beat anybody.”
The Warriors will have to pace themselves this weekend, hosting two back-to-back games — first against the Daysland Northstars Jan. 11 before the top-ranked Red Deer Rustlers come in to town the following night.
After that they have two more games on the road before playoffs begin.
