It’s do or die time for the Westlock Warriors following a 5-2 defeat to the Morinville Kings in Game 3 of their playoff series Feb. 2 in Morinville.
Now down 2-1 in the best-of-five North Central Hockey League playoffs series, head coach Mike Ivey said the Warriors need to find a way to beat the Kings goaltender in Game 4, which goes at the Rotary Spirit Centre Feb. 8.
“We have a good shot, we outplayed them,” he said. “We were on them pretty good, we just couldn’t score. Kind of that same old story, lot of close chances. It should have gone our way, but that’s the way it goes.
“Our goalie is playing really good, but their goalie is playing well too. He shut us down pretty good yesterday, but otherwise we’re handling them pretty well. We just have to bear down.”
In the loss the Warriors clocked 44 shots to the Kings 29, with Ivey and Jake Chizma netting goals. Goaltender Jordan Brand held off as many as he could while the team dominated every part of the game other than the scoreboard.
Ivey noted they were down a few players from the weather, work and other factors, but expected the team to come out in full force for Game 4.
“We’ve controlled the majority of the games and we beat them on home-ice last time,” he said.
“I think we’ve got a really good shot, so I’m not too worried. We’ve just got to score on our chances, we out-shot them by 15 last night, we just need to put the puck in the net.”
Noting a lot of fans made the trip to Morinville to cheer the Warriors on, Ivey thanked the community for the ongoing support and invited them out for what could be their final game of the year.
“Our season is on the line, so it’s going to be a pretty big one, so hopefully we can get a big crowd out and make it happen.”
