The Sylvan Lake Pirates swabbed the deck with the Whitecourt Wild with a 10-7 win on Nov. 18.
The Pirates now have two wins under their belt and are seventh in the standings.
The Pirates were the first to find the back of the net on Sunday when Ryan Burns scored with 11:30 left in the first.
The goal was followed by a second four minutes later from Declan Johnston.
The Wild ended the first and started the second period with goals, but were held at bay by a string of goals from the Pirates.
Justin Lowry, assisted by Eric Moltzahn and Justin Moltzahn, scored the Pirates’ third goal of the game in the second period.
Two minutes later captain Mike McAdam, from Carter Sawicki and Cody Lemon, makes the score 4-2.
The Pirates went into the second intermission up 5-2 after an unassisted goal from Eric Moltzahn with 3:09 to go.
The Wild started to make a comeback after a quick two goals at the beginning of the third period, but it wasn’t enough to discourage the Pirates.
Justis Lowry, from Eric Moltzahn and Justin Moltzahn, scored at 16:02 to keep the Pirates up 6-4.
With 12:45 left in the game the Wild had tied the Pirates 6-6.
The Pirates then found themselves with power play opportunities.
Cole Degraaf scored twice on power play, with assists from Jaret Smith, Bryce Marshall and Brett White, pushing the Pirates’ score to 8-6.
Just over two minutes later McAdam scored his second of the game, assisted by Bryce Marshall and Anthony Pickering.
The Wild scored one more goal to try to keep themselves in the game, but the Pirates’ Carter Sawicki, assisted Brett White, to make the final score 10-7.
Coach Tim Sylvester said speciality teams, like the power play, worked really well.
“We’ve got that fine tuned really, really well, everybody contributed, but special teams did come through for us,” said Sylvester.
Cody Nicolay, who was in net for the Pirates, saved 52 shots on net on Nov. 18.
“That’s the thing, everybody contributed,” reiterated Sylvester. “It was end to end to end to end. It was an excited game.”
Captain Mike McAdam said it was “definitely an offensive game.”
“Neither team wanted to play much defence, so we left it all to the goalies and Cody [Nicolay] played very well to keep us in it,” explained McAdam.
McAdam added he thinks the Pirates have found a little bit of a groove.
“We were jam packed in October and had a lot of games, but I think now we’re in mid-season form so we’re all starting to understand how each other plays and we’re making better choices on the ice and I think it’s starting to gel a bit better,” continued the captain. “I think it was just a tough start for us in October and now we have to close out [with a] strong end to our season.”
Coach Sylvester said they are not going to change anything heading into the second half of the season.
“Everybody is committed to coming to the games, going to the games, coming to practice and just to continue to get better,” Sylvester said. “Everybody wants this to work out.”
McAdam said the Pirates have good opportunities to win the rest of their games going forward.
“We have a lot of breaks, so we should all be well rested for each game. It should be an exciting end to the season, I think,” said McAdam.
The Pirates’ next game is Nov. 25 against the Devon Barons in Bentley at 12:30 p.m.
In December, the Pirates will be taking to home ice in Sylvan Lake to face off against Red Deer. Puck drop will be at 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 21.
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