The Whitecourt Wolverines played host to the Devon Xtreme for their home opener Friday night and fell 2-1, but bounced back on the road on Saturday for a 5-4 comeback.
On Sept. 18, the Xtreme secured a 1-0 lead about halfway through the first period and held onto it through period two.
At 5:58 in frame three, Devon scored again for a 2-0 lead while on the man advantage.
Whitecourt got a shot at a power play later in the period when Devon’s Nolan Eastwood went to the box for slashing. With assistance from Jackson DeGraves and Ty Rayan, Spencer Claerhout netted the team’s single point with 10 seconds left in the power play, to finish the game 2-1.
The team hit the road on Saturday for another shot at the Xtreme.
Antonio Bevacqua scored first at 2:19 for a quick 1-0 lead, with assistance from J. R. Goldstein and DeGraves.
At 5:37, Sidney Deslauriers netted another for Whitecourt, with the helpers going to Jett Quaschnick and Tristan Slywka.
Braxton Alaric topped up the Wolverines lead to 3-0 just over one minute later. He was assisted by Nathan Hawkins and Jake Banicevic.
In the second frame, Wolverine Jett Quaschnick went to the box for holding; Devon capitalized on the power play for their first point of the game, narrowing Whitecourt’s lead to 3-1.
But at 8:41, the Xtreme went down a man following a tripping minor, and Whitecourt scored again. Wolverine Ty Rayan was assisted by Spencer Claerhout and Kyle Tucker in securing a 4-1 lead.
The Xtreme secured two more goals in period two to bring the score to 4-3.
In the third frame, Whitecourt’s Jake Banicevic netted an unassisted insurance goal to make it 5-3.
Devon scored once more for the 5-4 finish with 21 seconds left in the game.
The Wolverines are on home ice again at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23.
