WESTLOCK – The U18-1 Warriors’ hopes for a second-consecutive Gord Smith Memorial Tournament title ended Dec. 11 in the semifinal of the six-team event at the Rotary Spirit Centre (RSC) as the club fell 3-2 to the Sturgeon Mustangs.
Warriors coach Warren Wylie said the game was up for grabs in the final 20 minutes, but they just couldn’t find the equalizer — Westlock actually held 1-0 and 2-1 leads and were on the hunt for the game-tying goal throughout the final frame.
“We had a bunch of chances and I thought we dominated them throughout the third period, but we just couldn’t beat their goalie,” said Wylie. “We played late last night and then first thing again this morning, so I think they boys might have been a bit tired.”
The Warriors opened the 17th-annual U18 tournament named in memory of Gord Smith, a local man who always stressed “fair and equal play”, held a “keen love” of amateur athletics and was one of the original organizers of the event, Dec. 9 with a 5-3 win over the Mustangs, then edged Calgary 5-4 Dec. 10 before facing Sturgeon again at 7:45 a.m. the next morning. At the 2021 Gord Smith, the Warriors went 4-0 and claimed the tournament title with a dramatic 5-4 win over Wainwright, while in this year’s final, Calgary went on to post a 3-1 win over Sturgeon.
“Really all three games from the weekend were really good and could have gone either way,” Wylie continued. “Sure we’d like to win this tournament every year at home, but if we did people would say it’s rigged,” he added with a chuckle.
League-wise the Warriors have had a decent start to the year with a 3-2-1 record in Tier 2 of Northern Alberta Interlock U18 League and Wylie said they have one goal: make provincials. The club has one weekend of play left before the three-week Christmas break and will look for some revenge against the two clubs they’ve yet to beat — Edson, on the road Dec. 17, and Athabasca, Dec. 18, at the RSC at 3:15 p.m.
“We’ve been taking a few too many penalties to start the year, but we’re starting to get that under wraps,” said Wylie. “We told the boys today that this weekend was just a bump in the road as our goal is to go to provincials, not to win this tournament.”
