Lumberjacks to lay it on the line
South Shore facing elimination against Antigonish Bulldogs
Don’t expect the South Shore Lumberjacks to blink when faced with elimination in the Nova Scotia Junior B Hockey League championship series on Wednesday.
The Lumberjacks are down 3-2 against the Antigonish Bulldogs with Game 6 on home ice at the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre.
The Ryan Falkenham-coached team has seen this show before. In the openinground series of the Fred Fox playoffs, the Lumberjacks dug themselves a hole with losses in the first three games against the East Hants Penguins. They rallied to win the series and then swept the Capstone Colts to advance to the championship series.
“We are a team that does perform well with our backs to the wall,” said Falkenham. “Looking back at that first series, the message has been the same all playoffs, to take one game at a time. This is a Game 6, and yes it is an elimination game, but I think we will approach it like any other game.
“Whether we were down 3-0 to East Hants or up 3-0 against Capstone, it’s just breaking the games up into individual shifts and pieces of periods.”
Falkenham said he would like to see the Lumberjacks open with a better start. In all five games of the series, the Bulldogs have scored the first goal.
“Something that would be a benefit is we want to get off to good starts,” said the coach, in his second year with the team. “We usually get better as the games on, so it’s just a matter of finding a way to have better starts and get ahead.”
TIGHT SERIES
The Bulldogs were the most dominant team in the regular season and cruised to first place in the Sid Rowe Division, while the Lumberjacks made a second-half push to claim second spot in the Fred Fox Division.
Antigonish led the regular season with 150 goals and only 71 allowed. The Lumberjacks had the second-most goals with 142 and surrendered just 89 goals.
And the series has lived up to those numbers as Games 3, 4 and 5 were all decided by only one goal.
“They have a lot of offence and a lot of power,” said Falkenham of the Bulldogs. “We are more of a team that relies on team effort and on our strategy. We are a bigger team, we can play physical and we have the speed to skate with anyone. That’s a focus of ours is to play fast and physical.”
Leading the way for the Lumberjacks is overage forward Alec Howie, who tops the playoffs with 10 goals and 14 assists in 16 games. Teammates Brennan Coleman has seven goals in the postseason, while Joe Osborne and John Shubaly have five each.
The Bulldogs have seven players with 10 points or more in the playoffs. Will Fitzsimmons (7-12-19), Ethan Twolan (5-12-17), Venel Campbell (6-9-15), Zachary Lorette (9-4-13) and Bradley Armstrong (5-8-13) have all created chaos for their playoff opponents.
Lumberjack goalie Kegan Greencorn (2.43 goals against) and Bulldogs counterpart Adam Tkacz (2.59) have excelled in the postseason.
“Alec Howie’s the guy whose offensive skill and the stuff he can do with the puck is incredible,” said Falkenham. “We rely on him for that. He is one of our four overagers and especially in playoffs, those guys have come up big and been our go-to guys.”
HOME SUPPORT
With their championship hopes on the line, the Lumberjacks can expect another full house at the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre on Wednesday.
Falkenham said the support has been overwhelming and has helped the players through the playoff run. He hopes the home crowd can help his team force a Game 7.
“We’re doing really well in Bridgewater, selling our games out, which is unbelievable. That’s pretty sweet for junior B. Most of these guys have never played in front of big crowds like that.”
The series winner will represent Nova Scotia at the Don Johnson Cup in Mount Pearl, N.L., April 23-28th.