Tigers edge Warriors in SCAHL thriller
By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter
Tyler Lowey Photo
On March 17, the Wheatland Warriors added their name to the list of the greatest games ever played in Strathmore.
The only problem was that they came out on the wrong end of things.
With a trip to the provincial tournament on the line, the local double-A team was shaved 2-1 in double overtime by the West Central Tigers, ending their South Central Alberta Hockey League season.
“It was a feather in their cap just to get here and I am proud of them for that,” said Warriors Head Coach Cody Brown. “Every guy in that room left it all out there and that’s all you can ask at this point.”
The Tigers took Game 1 of the best-of-three league final 5-1 one day earlier in Sylvan Lake.
With the Warriors back up against the wall, they hung on by their fingernails in the first half of the opening frame.
Lachlan Stewart took a double minor for head contact shortly after puck drop, as the Tigers swarmed the offensive end, but couldn’t find the back of the net. At one point in the first, the visiting squad led 11-2 in shots and wouldn’t let the Warriors gain an inch.
The Warriors began to find their footing in the second half of the frame, as Ray Warrack, Domenic Ficaccio and Brayden Ledrew all had breakaway chances, but were all stymied by Kaden Toussaint.
Disaster struck shortly after, when Dylan Fries-Abel went to cover a dump in by Ryan Datema, only to have the puck slip under the heel of his glove and trickle into the back of the net.
The crowd, which was a 50-50 split between Warrior and Tiger fans, and resembled a Strathmore Bison crowd, erupted at the opening goal.
“Dylan was the guy we had to ride. He was a big reason we won the south tourney and the hot hand to go with,” said Brown. “Last night wasn’t a 5-1 game, it was 2-1 until late in the third when a couple flukers went past him and weren’t his fault. He was the guy we had to have out there.”
The Tigers looked to extend their lead following a Warriors power play when Kyle Humphrey blocked a Warriors point shot and the ricochet off the shin pads found Blake Morley at centre ice after just exiting the penalty box. The puck luckily found him in stride, as he raced in on Fries-Abel, but the right shoulder of Fries-Abel turned his shot attempt away.
Having gone 0-for-4 on the man advantage in Game 1 and failing to convert in Game 2, combined with the breakaways and near misses, could have provided the Warriors with a laundry list of excuses on why they couldn’t bury the extra goal needed.
“We would have loved to get a couple bounces, but at the end of the day, they tried their hearts out and couldn’t get one to sneak by,” said Brown. “They were trying so we don’t regret anything.”
Warrack finally was able to sneak one past the near-bulletproof Toussaint when he took a great entry pass from Spencer Tower and shelved a backhander through the smallest of windows to knot the game at one at the 4:36 mark of the third.
Brown has been preaching a physical, hard-working brand of hockey all year, and when it mattered most with tired legs in overtime, the Warriors stuck to the formula.
Captain Chase Tweit pinched at the blue line to keep the play alive, but got burnt. Kory Goossens took off on a breakaway the other direction, but Nate Gillis busted back into the play and lowered the boom on Goossens with a bone-crunching hip check to neutralize the rush.
Halfway through the second overtime, a clearing attempt by the Warriors hit Tweit’s skates in front of the net. Unable to track it down immediately, Jake Smith pounced on it and rifled one past the glove of Fries-Abel, sending the Tigers to the provincial tournament.
It was redemption for the Tigers, who lost out in the SCAHL final last year to the Okotoks Oilers.
“They are a great team with lots of depth and size, and wanted to work hard to get back to where they almost were last year,” said Brown. “We met them with all we had and it still wasn’t enough. We went down swinging and that’s all you can ask.”