The Warman U18 AAA Wildcats didn’t disappoint fans during their season home-opener after taking a 4-1 win over the Estevan Bears on October 8 at the Legends Centre.
Both teams battled hard throughout the matchup and Wildcats head coach Courage Bear was glad to see his team come out on top.
“It’s exciting anytime you get a win, but obviously in the home-opener you want to put on a good show for your fans,” he said. “Estevan works hard and they play physical, so it was nice to come out with the two points, for sure.”
Warman had some quality chances in the opening period to score the game’s first goal, but Estevan’s goalie was sharp early on, making some great saves.
“They have a good goalie and we just had to stay patient and make sure we didn’t make thelittle mistake, that the puck would end up in our net,” said Bear.
Estevan actually struck first in the second period. However, a few minutes after that goal, the Bears committed a penalty and the Wildcats capitalized as Mason Bueckert netted a power-play goal, to tie the game.
The contest would remain tied going into the final period. Estevan had a golden opportunity to take control of the game when Warman started the third period on the penalty kill for four minutes.
The Wildcats buckled down and did a great job killing the penalty, which gave the team some momentum to get back on the offensive attack.
“We’re comfortable killing penalties, not that you want to do that (for four straight minutes) … and I thought everybody did a great job on that (penalty kill),” said Bear.
Around the midway point of the period, Conner Gabriel found the back of the net to give the Wildcats the lead, but there was still plenty of time on the clock for Estevan to tie it up.
Warman continued to battle hard and the Wildcats were rewarded after Gabriel scored his second goal of the game to give his team a two goal lead.
Even though that two goal lead lifted some of the pressure off the Wildcats, it was still important that they continue to play their best.
“It gives you a little breathing room but there is never enough (breathing room) in a tight game like that because they could (all a sudden) score a couple goals in a shift,” said Bear.
Jordan Normand sealed the game for the Wildcats with a goal late in the third period.
Bear was impressed with how his team stuck to the game plan in that third period, which ultimately led to the win.
“In the third period, we got to the hard places to score goals and that’s what you need to do to win in this league. It’s so competitive in this league that any given night you can be on the right side or the wrong side (of the score) just by one goal or one mistake,” said Bear.
The Wildcats were also in action on October 9 , but dropped a 1-0 overtime decision to the Saskatoon Contacts.
The Wildcats started the season with six road games, winning four of them, before playing their home opener and Bear hopes his team can continue that solid play. Bear said that going into the season the team definitely had the talent to get off to a solid start.
“We were confident in the group we have, but you never know until the puck drops,” he said. “We want to make sure that the guys jump in with both feet and they are ready to go each night.”