By COLBY STOESZ
The Warman U18 AAA Wildcats are still looking for their first victory of the regular season as they lost their home opener to the Estevan Great North Bears 3-4 on Saturday night, October 5.
This loss follows a 3-6 loss against North Battleford on Wednesday for Warman.
Saturday’s game couldn’t have started better for Warman. At the halfway mark of the first period, rookie Sam Failler found the back of the net with help from Declan Borthwick and Calder Hamilton. Less than a minute later, Warman local Mason Obrigewitch scored his first goal of the season, assisted by Koston Baliski and Dylan Danyluk. Hudson Brehaut scored unassisted to give Warman a 3-0 lead late in the opening frame.
The home crowd was buzzing, but unbeknownst to them, Warman wouldn’t score again for the rest of the contest. Estevan’s Roan Burgess scored in the waning seconds of the first period, a goal that flipped the momentum against the home team.
After 20 minutes of play, the Wildcats held on to a 3-1 lead.
Penalties were the name of the game on Saturday night. Warman and Estevan each served 20 minutes in the sin bin, but the visiting Bears were the only ones to make use of the man advantage.
A Warman cross-check midway through the second period put the Bears on the power play, and Estevan’s Carter Hirsch capitalized. Five minutes later, Bears’ rookie Will Nicholson buried his second goal of the young season to tie the hockey game 3-3 heading into the final period.
The Wildcats couldn’t break their drought in the third period, despite heavily out-shooting the visitors. The home team peppered Estevan with 39 shots throughout the game, compared to 21 shots from the Bears.
Estevan’s Gunner Moore broke the stalemate and scored the game-winner for the Bears, assisted by Nicholson and Burgess. Nicholson finished with a game-high three points.
No Wildcat scored more than a single point on Saturday night. Warman goaltender Jacob Appleby finished with a save percentage of .810 in the loss.
The Wildcats will look to notch their first win of the season on Monday, October 14 when they’ll host the Notre Dame Hounds for a Thanksgiving clash. With Saturday’s loss, they fell to 0-2-0, while Estevan improved to 4-1-0.