The Slave Lake Winterhawks started their defense of their North Central Hockey League championship with a 6 – 2 road victory in Fox Creek against the Bandits on Feb. 4. It was a low-scoring affair by the ‘Hawks’ usual standards. In fact they had to come back against a determined opponent.
“They (Fox Creek) played pretty well,” says Winterhawk Coach Pat McGill. “They came out storming and they were beating us 2 – 0. I think they scored in the first minute.”
It didn’t take the Winterhawks long, however, to get on the board. They tied it up at two before the period was over on goals by Brian Bouchard and Brad McTavish.
In the second the ‘Hawks poured on the pressure, firing 22 shots at Bandits’ goalie Ian Chwok. He was in good form, stopping 20 of them. Ryan Dierker was in good form too, scoring both second period goals to give Slave Lake a 4 – 2 lead.
Third period goals by Adam Ching and Bouchard sealed the victory.
Calvin Beauchamp was the winning goalie. Dierker led all scorers with four points. Jason Green and Keith Sinclair each had three assists.
The game got “a bit chippy,” as it went on, says McGill. “We’ll see if they want to bring that on Saturday.”
The game was the first of a best-of-three series. Game 2 is in Slave Lake this Saturday, Feb. 11 at 8:30 p.m. following the Wolves’ game. If necessary, Game 3 will go Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

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