The Warriors improved their record to three wins on the weekend, edging out the Frog Lake T-Birds by a score of 3-2 and giving the good-sized home crowd a reason to cheer for the second Sunday in a row.
The Warriors’ week had gotten off to a good start, with the team’s first win of the season last Sunday against the Cold Lake Ice, which they followed up by welcoming the Wainwright Bisons to home ice last Wednesday. That night saw an upset, with the Warriors, the bottom ranked team in the North East Alberta Junior B Hockey League, handing the top-ranked Bisons a 4-3 loss, to the jubilation of the team and its supporters.
“It was such a huge win,” said Warriors’ head coach, Terry Ewasiuk. But the Warriors stumbled a bit in their next two games, losing their Friday game against the Vermilion Tigers, 7-4, and their Saturday game against St. Paul by 3-1.
Ewasiuk said that wasn’t an entirely unprecedented result, given that the Bisons’ game really took it out of the team.
“The emotions drain you – physically and emotionally, you’re drained,” he said of the effort that went into beating the Bisons and the after-effect of the victory. In both games against the Tigers and the Canadiens, the Warriors “came out really flat. For whatever reason, we didn’t play very well.”
On Sunday night, the Warriors regrouped when welcoming the T-Birds to the Manitou Kihew arena.
The first two games the Warriors had played the T-Birds, they had faced two big losses, with Frog Lake posting an 8 – 3 win and a 8 – 2 win, pointed out Ewasiuk, calling the T-Birds a team that’s “dangerous all the time.”
But the Warriors that faced the T-Birds on Sunday night was a “totally different team” than the one that faced them earlier in the season, he said. “We’ve improved 100 per cent.”
The team is young, focused and has strong goaltending, he said, giving credit to goalie Mike Newberger for an outstanding game, facing down 25 shots and making critical saves.
The Warriors took the lead midway into the first period, with Erik Hamelin potting a goal with an assist from Preston Sparklingeyes. Matthew Cameron and Ty Thompson scored two in the second to give the team a 3-0 lead. But the T-Birds battled back, with Sidney Gladue getting his team a goal in the second, and George Montour scoring early in the third to close the Warriors’ lead to 3-2. Despite a couple power-play opportunities, neither team managed to get another goal, which gave the Warriors the win and improved the team’s record to 3 – 18, with eight points.
“Today, we came through with a nail-biter win,” said Ewasiuk, noting that each night, Newberger “gives us a chance to win.”
Each game night, the Warriors give a game puck to a top-performing player, and on Sunday night, that puck went to Newberger.
“Our team played great defence. They cleared any rebounds I gave up. They just made my job a lot easier,” said Newberger, deflecting credit for the team’s success.
While the boys didn’t start the year they wanted to, he said he thought the team has turned the corner. “The guys have been working hard every day,” he said, adding the team was focused on working its systems. “We’re just getting better every day. It’s a fun thing to be a part of, with this young group.”
The Warriors will face the Bisons again this week, on Friday night in Wainwright and a Saturday night game against the Onion Lake Border Chiefs in Onion Lake, before breaking for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. When they come back in the new year, they’ll welcome the Canadiens to the Manitou Kihew Arena on Saturday, Jan. 9.
