Close. So close. Slave Lake’s Winterhawks were a whisker away from winning the Alberta Senior ‘A’ Provincial Championships in Drayton Valley on the weekend. Tied 6 – 6 with Ft. MacLeod with under three minutes left, it could have gone either way.
As it turned out, it went the other way. Ft. MacLeod scored one with two-and-a-half minutes left. Pressing for the tying goal, the ‘Hawks got caught and gave up another and that was it.
“I’m disappointed, but I’m happy,” says Coach Lorne Poitras. “We battled right to the wire. Our guys played really well.”
The tournament was a bit unusual in that there was no round robin or crossing over from one side of the draw to the other. The first game losers went on to contest the ‘B’ championship and the winners went on to the ‘A’. Any loss after the first game meant a team was out of the tournament. At last year’s provincials the ‘Hawks played a three-game round robin and then lost in a semi-final to Ft. MacLeod. This time, they won two games and were into the final.
The first win was 10 – 5 over Paradise Valley – a small town south of Lloydminster. The Winterhawks were in total control of this one from the start. They took a 4 – 0 first-period lead on two goals by Ryan Dierker, Chris Hatch and Scott Lawrence. Jason Green scored two and Shane Hordal, Keith Sinclair, Brian Bouchard one each in the second, which ended up with Slave Lake in the lead 9 – 3. Hatch scored again in the third. Sheldon Ghostkeeper got the win in goal.
The win moved the ‘Hawks into the ‘A’ side, where Nanton had advanced with a close win over host Drayton Valley. Drayton Valley is the team the Winterhawks could never beat when they played in the same league, so the team was expecting a really tough game against Nanton. It didn’t turn out that way.
Nanton’s hot goalie – named Wideman – had stoned Drayton Valley all game long, but the ‘Hawks soon got his number and kept calling it. “Once we found the back of the net it seemed like they just faded away,” says Poitras.
“Their ‘big goalie’ – we just ran him out of the net.”
Dierker and Adam Ching scored in the first period, which the ‘Hawks led 2 – 1. In the second Dierker got a couple more and Green scored one. Nanton only replied once.
In the third, Craig Dombrosky, Domino Der, Keith Sinclair and Kyle Hansen all dialed up the Nanton back-up goalie’s number. The final score was 9 – 3. Calvin Beauchamp got the job done for Slave Lake in goal.
The final game was close all the way. Ft. MacLeod led 4 – 3 after one period and 5 – 4 after two. It was a hard, tough battle all the way, says Poitras, with neither team giving an inch.
“It was a very good hockey game,” he says.
One thing that helped the Winterhawks was having 40 or 50 noisy Slave Lake fans in the stands.
“We were kind of excited about that,” says Poitras. “It gives you that boost away from home that you need.”
The ‘Hawks were not as healthy has they would have liked. Three defencemen – Curtis Poitras, Eddie Giroux and Gord Kruppke – missed the tournament with injuries. The ones who did play gave everything they had. “I’m proud to coach these guys,” says Poitras.

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