The Westlock Warriors opened their North Central Hockey League season on the right note, blanking the Whitecourt Wild 4-0 in their Oct. 6 season opener at the Rotary Spirit Centre.
“It was awesome. It was nice to get off to a good start like that. We’re pretty happy. We wanted this one pretty bad. We had a good year last year and we wanted to build off that and this is the start we wanted for sure,” said team captain and head coach Mike Ivey.
The Warriors scored their first goal of the game and the season halfway through the first period when Brett Bujold put one behind the Whitecourt goalie, with assists from Taylor Heck and Karmen Ward. From there it was just a matter of keeping the puck out of their own net, said Ivey.
Goaltender Jordan Brand, one of several first-year players, contributed to that cause, earning his first shutout in his first game at the senior level, in the mostly defensive tilt that saw him turn away 32 shots for the win.
“He was unbelievable,” said Ivey. “We’re super-pumped to have him, he’s just a competitor, so we’re very excited about that.”
The two teams went back and forth for the rest of the first and second periods, with no goals for the home team, but the Warriors speed and physical presence kept the Wild off the board as well.
“We’re a quick team, we work hard and we’re pretty physical. It’s going to be sweet to see how that goes,” said Ivey.
The defensive nature of the game soon turned as the Wild began to rack up the penalties and the Warriors pounced on their opportunities, scoring three more unanswered goals in the third.
Ryan Nelles scored the Warriors second goal unassisted, which was followed by another goal from Bujold, with an assist from Scott Ivey, who then turned around and scored a goal of his own, with an assist from Mike Ivey to put it well out of reach for the Wild.
Coach Ivey said he hopes this is a positive sign for the rest of the season to come.
“We’re just going to try to get better each time. We’re very happy with our group, we’ve got a lot of good forwards and our D is looking good and our goaltending is obviously very strong so we’re going to keep building off this,” Ivey said.
The Warriors will hit the road Oct. 13 against Morinville and then again Oct. 20 against Devon before returning home Oct. 27 to play Sylvan Lake. Game time is 8:30 p.m.
