Warriors earn split

Times Editor

 

The Wheatland Warriors earned a hard-fought overtime win in Game 1 of the SCAHL Bantam Championship and took home-ice advantage in the process.

The local double-A bantam team defeated the Cranbrook Ice 3-2 in double overtime to open the series on March 15, before dropping Game 2 the following day 5-1.

However, by getting the split to open the best-of-five championship series, the Warriors took home-ice advantage for Games 3 & 4 in Strathmore later this month.

“If you would have said before (the series) we’d come out with a split, we would have been happy,” said head coach Paden Grant. “We didn’t play our best, but we had a good road playoff game in the first one and snuck it out in double overtime.

“It was good, we got the split and now we get to come home to our barn now.”

After a long bus ride to Cranbrook, the Warriors opened the scoring in Game 1, when Ben Huculak converted a power play feed from Josh Bishop to open the scoring. After the Ice tied it in the second period, Cole Busslinger scored another power play goal when he took a pass from Easton Munchrath and Bradley Henricks late in the middle frame.

The Ice scored the lone third period goal, before Shane Fraser scored the double overtime winner with an unassisted power play marker.

“They out shot us by quite a bit (in Game 1), but we kept the shots to the outside,” said Grant. “We limited their chances and we did what we had to do to win. When it goes into overtime, it’s always a bounce here or an ugly goal. We were just going hard and it worked out.”

In Game 2, the Warriors got off to the start they wanted when Cody Hammond converted a feed from Kaleb Robinson and Jayse Wilson.

However, the Ice scored five unanswered goals, including four on the power play.

“If we get away from our system and play more as individuals, then we’re not successful,” said the coach. “We took a lot of penalties too – they have a really good power play and we were in the box for most of the game. You can’t do that if you want to be successful. We learned a lot in Game 2.”

The Warriors will host Game 3 on March 27 (6:45 p.m.) and Game 4 on March 28 (1 p.m.) at the Strathmore Family Centre.

The series is now on hold for 10 days, as both teams will take part in their respective provincial championships.

The Warriors will travel to Medicine Hat for their Provincial Championship Tournament March 23-25.

“I don’t like this layoff (from the series, but) we have to put it out of our mind and focus on provincials,” said Grant. “Obviously winning the league is our No. 1 goal of the year, but we made it to provincials and we want to win provincials. We have to completely focus on that now.

“You can’t take a game off or it might cost you a chance at the semifinals – you have to be ready to play all the time.

“We’re playing good hockey now and I’m confident how we’ll do.”