An overtime winner off the stick of Brady Ducharme gave the Westlock Senior Warriors a 4-3 win over the Morinville Kings in Game 2 of the North Central Hockey League playoffs and knots the best-of-five first-round series at a game apiece.
Game 2 Jan. 27 was a must-win for the sixth-ranked Warriors who started their NCHL playoff run on the road Jan. 26 with a 5-1 loss to the No. 3 ranked Kings. Mike Podruzny scored the team’s only goal, with assists from Rylan Stoddart and Corey Mercier.
“They played pretty well and took it to us a bit, but it could have went either way,” said captain and coach Mike Ivey.
“As much as it was 5-1, it was more like a 3-1 game. They added an empty netter and another late goal. It was tight all the way through, we just couldn’t score.
“It was tight-checking, we just couldn’t buy one.”
Game 2 took place at the Rotary Spirit Centre and the Warriors were highly motivated in front of the home crowd, keeping pace with the Kings with a goal by Dallas Ansell in the first and another by Brett Bujold in the second.
The Warriors were out-skating and out-hustling the Kings for much of the game to that point, but gave up the go-ahead goal late in the second period to make the score 3-2 going into the third.
It appeared it was going to stay that way until late in the third when, with the Westlock goalie pulled for the extra attacker and a King in the penalty box, Ansell scored his second of the game with only 1:30 remaining to tie the game 3-3 and push it into overtime.
In sudden death the Warriors peppered the Morinville goaltender with shots until just over halfway into the frame when Ducharme tipped one into the net off a shot from the blueline.
“It’s a big win, it was a weird slide,” said Ivey. “There was a lot that wasn’t working out and we had such a good start to the season. We lost to some teams we should have been beating. We knew coming into playoffs that we could beat these guys so it’s nice to get some confidence back.”
Completing their checks was key to the win, said Ivey.
“We’re trying to finish them off early on. They’re a good offensive team, so if we can finish them before the blue line before they get into our zone or as they’re leaving it, we’re doing good. The last half of this game, we dominated.”
Game 3 goes in Morinville Feb. 2 with Game 4 in Westlock Feb. 8. Game 5, if necessary, will be played in Morinville Feb. 9. All games start at 8:30 p.m.
