The Saddle Lake Warriors Junior B hockey team lost a close overtime game against the Vegreville Rangers last Friday night at Saddle Lake’s Manitou Kihew arena.
The final score was 3 – 2 for the Rangers, with the Rangers’ Zach Soprovich beating Warriors’ goalie, Matthew Johnson, with an overtime goal. The Rangers’ Kelsey Day and Evan Warawa assisted with the game-defining goal.
Warriors forward James Emmett scored the game’s first goal in the first period with assists from Josh Lapatak and Matthew Watson, while Warriors’ defenceman Caleb Cardinal contributed the team’s second goal in the third period with the assist going to Lapatak and Justin Christian.
Warriors’ coach Stan Olson noted this marked the team’s fourth overtime loss.
“I would like to win (an overtime game) once,” said Olson, noting that if the Warriors’ upcoming playoff games go into overtime, the team needs to be “more diligent on positioning, changing, and just everything in general.”
Olson also said that the team, which is in seventh place in the North East Alberta Junior B Hockey League, ahead of the Thorhild Titans and the St. Paul Canadiens, will probably face the Bandits out of Lloydminster in the playoffs, which will start after the normal season ends two weeks from now on Feb. 6.
“We’re going to wind up playing Lloydminster, and we match up a little better against them than Vegreville,” said Olson. He noted that the Vegreville Rangers are a “bigger and stronger team,” but whichever team the Warriors end up taking on, he and the boys were up for the challenge.
The Warriors went on to win their Saturday game against local rivals, the St. Paul Canadiens, at the Clancy Richards arena by a score of 9 – 1.
Saddle Lake will next go against the Wainwright Bisons in a home game on Friday evening, and will play the last game for the month of January against the Bandits at Lloydminster on the Jan. 29.
