The Whitecourt Wolverines and Grande Prairie Storm are tied 3-3 in their best-of-seven series of the AJHL semifinals after one win and one loss over the weekend.
Friday, April 10, the Wolverines beat the Storm 2-1 in overtime.
At 5:38, Wolverine Xander Schulte earned a tripping minor, and the Storm scored on the powerplay for a 1-0 lead.
Whitecourt’s Tyler Pretty answered with a powerplay goal of his own about three minutes later, after Grande Prairie’s Ethan Kronewitt was serving a double minor for high sticking. Quentin Bourne and Jackson DeGraves assisted.
The teams remained tied at 1-1 until the buzzer, sending the game into overtime. At 13:34, Brendan Ruskowski, with assistance from Xander Schulte and Nathan Hawkins, netted the Wolverines’ winning goal. It was Ruskowski’s seventh goal of the postseason.
Elliott Pratt stopped 31 of 32 shots on goal for the Wolverines to help seal the victory.
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Sunday was another story: the Wolverines fell 5-1 to the Storm at the Bonnetts Energy Centre, with 3,159 people in the stands.
Grande Prairie scored twice in period one, including a late powerplay goal, which turned out to be the eventual game winner.
The Storm then jumped to 3-0 lead about 10 minutes into the second frame.
Tyler Pretty fired back for Whitecourt with a powerplay goal at 12:27, bringing it to 3-1. The helpers went to Quentin Bourne and Jackson DeGraves.
The Storm scored once more in the second frame and again in the third for the 5-1 finish.
Game seven of the semifinals gets underway at JDA Place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14. The winner will take on the Canmore Eagles in the AJHL finals.
