The Whitecourt Wolverines are 1-1 in their seven-game series against the Grande Prairie Storm after two weekend home games.
Friday night, they beat the Storm 4-1 in front of 935 spectators.
With just 27 seconds left in the first period, Brendan Ruskowski opened the scoring with his fifth of the playoffs, thanks to help from Xander Schulte and Quentin Bourne for a 1-0 lead.
Wolverine Xander Schulte then kept the momentum going with his fifth of the playoffs at 6:07 of period two for 2-0 lead. The helpers went to Billy Hooson and Tyler Pretty.
Later, Nolan Schmidt netted his second post-season goal at 12:06 while Billy Hooson assisted to make it 3-0.
The Storm fired back to make it 3-1 in the third, however, but Ty Rayan secured an empty-netter, unassisted at 19:28 for Whitecourt to finish 4-1.
Grande Prairie outshot Whitecourt 40-28.
—
Saturday was a tighter match, however, with the Storm coming out on top 2-1 in overtime.
Grande Prairie netted a shorthanded goal in period one for a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
No one scored in the second frame despite two powerplay opportunities for the Wolverines.
In the third frame, Wolverines Jager Gugyelka and Nolan Schmidt supported Kyle Tucker with his third goal of the playoffs to tie things up 1-1.
Will Harris then scored for Grande Prairie 51 seconds into overtime for the 2-1 victory.
Game three of the AJHL Semifinals goes April 7 at 7 p.m. in Grande Prairie.
