On Feb. 27, the Central Valley Warriors hockey team closed up their season, leaving the ice behind for the final time until they start anew in September. The Warriors concluded their season with a record of 3-2-15-0, three regulation wins, two overtime wins and a total of 15 regulation losses, falling to fifth, or last, in their division. They missed the Penguin Cup Playoffs, the league’s postseason competition for the 2024-2025 season, failing to meet their record from last year, which was their recent high. They missed out on the playoffs by 21 points.
Each season has a story to tell from the perspective of the players and from the fans. Central Valley’s story continued on Feb. 11. They would play on the road against Trinity at the Printscape Arena at Southpointe. The Warriors controlled the game early, building a 4-1 lead with four goals. Things started to turn around for the Warriors in the second period, however. Trinity adapted to Central Valley’s play. In a surprising turn of events, Trinity seized control of the game, coming back to win the game with a score of 8-4.
After the disappointing loss to Trinity, Central Valley began their final stint of the season. During this stretch, they hosted three games, which were crucial to determining if they would make the playoffs or not.
Against Carrick, Central Valley celebrated their senior night, a night about celebrating senior players’ careers. The program did this by having players create a tunnel with sticks held in the air above the senior players. As their names were announced, Warriors players skated out to meet their parents at center ice.
“It felt a little unreal,” Noah Fessides (12) said. “The past three years, I have watched everyone else doing it [skating down the tunnel], but this year I was doing it.”
As the game got underway, the Warriors struggled against a very skilled Carrick team, trailing 4-1 before the final frame. Central Valley fought hard to close the gap, but were unable to overcome induced penalties, drawing three of five penalties in the first two periods combined. Carrick shook off their efforts, putting three past the Warriors’ Gavin Husk. Despite their efforts, the Warriors fell to the Raiders by a score of 7-2.
The Warriors continued their campaign on Feb. 20, where they faced Bishop Canevin at home. Going into the matchup, the Crusaders had the advantage, being 8-0-10-0 as compared to Central Valley’s 3-2-13-0 record. Central Valley struck first, three minutes into the second period, courtesy of Mikey Crea. However, it did not take long for Bishop Canevin to strike back. The Crusaders closed the period out with two goals, adding another at the beginning of the third. Central Valley’s Caleb Mcquaid struck back, but it was not enough. The Warriors would go on to lose by a score of 6-2.
Central Valley closed the 2024-2025 regular season on Feb. 28, where they hosted Deer Lakes for a 6:45 P.M. start. Deer Lakes opened up the scoring about 10 minutes in, from the stick of Austin Veri. It did not take long for the Lancers to strike again, with Trevor Keenan scoring a minute and a half later. The Lancers kept the momentum going to push the game to 10-1 by the time that time expired.
“It was sad, they’re all my friends, a lot of them,” Fessides said “The underclassmen, I became friends with a lot of them”.
As the end of the season grew closer, the Warriors shifted their focus to growing and nurturing young, prospering talent. In the final months of the PIHL season, they allowed junior varsity players to join them during practices and run drills with the more experienced upperclassmen. Underclassmen also participated in team-bonding exercises with the varsity players.
Although Fessides is graduating in June, the Bulldogs still have something to look forward to when hockey season comes back around. The team has many new prospects coming up, such as Alec Lockwood (10) will be making the jump to varsity in the winter.
“They are tough people, but they are also skilled people,” Lockwood said. “Based on the teams that I have played with, the biggest difference is speed, but I am looking forward to it.”