The Saddle Lake Warriors laced up their skates on Oct. 8 for a home matchup against the Cold Lake Ice.
The visiting team found the scoreboard first with a goal midway through the opening period.
Saddle Lake’s Tyler Haineault responded five minutes later with a spectacular play of his own. He stole the puck at the opposite blue line and charged towards Cold Lake’s goal with defenders in hot pursuit. They caught up to him just as he approached the goaltender, and he fought through the defence to net an impressive score as he fell down to the ice.
“The boys in the dressing room were talking about it, and they were quite surprised that he was able to outmuscle the two defenders and get the puck in the net,” head coach Darcy McGilvery said of the play after the game.
The first period ended with the score knotted at one goal apiece.
Cold Lake was again the first to score in the second. Once again, however, Saddle Lake responded with a Silas Makokis power play goal, scored with 11:39 left to play in the frame.
Though that would be the only scoring in the period, the rest of the frame didn’t lack excitement. With about six minutes left to play in the second, play stopped to allow a fight to take its course.
“Is there a spot in the sport for fighting? In my opinion, yes,” McGilvery said. “It’s to help maintain composure. As long as we don’t let it get out of hand with goon hockey.”
The score was still tied at 2-2 when the teams broke for the Zamboni’s second run of the ice.
The game was broken open shortly into the third, as Cold Lake found the back of the net with three unanswered goals. Saddle Lake was able to score another power play goal, this one netted by Kevin Krengnatak with 7:34 to go in the game. Cold Lake answered with two more, including a late-game score with only two seconds left on the clock, making the final score 7-3 in Cold Lake’s favour.
“That’s twice now Cold Lake slipped away from us. We played them in the preseason and they beat us 6-4. We still believe we can beat these guys,” McGillvery said. “This evening it was evident. We ran out of gas in the third period. A couple bad penalties, a couple bad bounces, it didn’t take much for Cold Lake to run away with it. “
Though the head coach was happy with his team’s play through the first two periods of the game, he was upset that his team opened a window in the third and allowed Cold Lake to make their move.
“With these elite teams . . . we can’t give them even a sniff of a chance, because it doesn’t take much,” he said. “They have quick forwards, they have a good transition game, and they are always thinking offence. “
The coach seems to still have faith in his team, which now has a 0-3 record in the NEAJBHL standings.
“We will continue to work hard,” he said.
