WESTLOCK — The Westlock Warriors find themselves in familiar territory, down 0-2 – the same situation they found themselves in last year in round one — after losing the first two games of the North Central Hockey League (NCHL) quarter-finals this weekend.
The North Division’s second-seeded Warriors welcomed the third-seeded Bonnyville Pontiacs on Saturday night, Feb. 10, for game one in the North Central Hockey League (NCHL) Vanberg Cup playoffs, which ultimately saw them lose a well-fought 4-3 overtime decision in front of a home crowd. On the road in Bonnyville Sunday for game two, the Warriors were dealt a 5-2 loss to put them with their backs against the wall, facing a win or go home game three on Friday, Feb. 16 at the Rotary Spirit Centre.
Earlier in the week, Warriors head coach Rod Kaliel said they faced them four times during the regular season and came away with a three-win, one-loss record against them in the season series.
“They’ve all been fairly close games so we’re looking forward to a really competitive first round event,” said Kaliel, noting the winner in the best of five series goes onto the NCHL semi-finals.
“We were happy with how the regular season went. We got off to a good start, we did suffer a few really close losses that caused us to lose first place by that one point,” he said, noting their 18 points on the season. “At the end of the day we’re going to have to beat these teams regardless, so our first opponent’s Bonnyville and we’re prepared and ready for them.”
One key difference from last year noted Kaliel, is the skill level on all four lines.
“Our roster more than at any time in the past 10 years, has a great amount of depth,” he said. “I have confidence in playing any one of the guys that we have on our roster and putting them in the lineup … that’s the type of depth I think is really important going into playoffs and will bode well for us in the future.”
Kaliel said the Pontiacs are a skilled opponent and noted what the Warriors must do if they want to move onto the semi-finals.
"Bonnyville has a highly offensive top line, so the key to the series will be shutting down that top line,” said Kaliel. “So making sure we play a tight, close-checking game that frustrates and shuts down that top line. That’s going to be key for us in winning the series.”
And despite a successful regular season and highly skilled team in the Warriors themselves, Kaliel is not looking too far ahead.
“Our focus really has to be game (to) game. If we get ahead of ourselves, then that’s when we’re going to get into trouble,” he said. “To win the Vanberg Cup you need to win 11 games and that’s a lot of games to win so I think the best strategy is to take it game by game.”
Game three is set for Feb. 16 at the Rotary Spirit Centre. Puck drop is 8:30 p.m.
