Semifinal bound
The Hurricanes scored two must wins to continue their Midget AA playoff run.
The Swift Current K Motel Hurricanes advanced to the second round of the South Saskatchewan Midget AA Hockey League playoffs with a 5-2 win over the visiting Regina Wild Sunday.
The second seeded Hurricanes had lost game one of the best-of-three series in Regina before winning both games at home to advance to the league semi-final series. Blade Roh picked up the win with 29 saves, including 16 saves in the first period to allow the Hurricanes to lead 1-0 despite being outshot 167 over the opening 20 minutes.
Jordan Wittman led the Hurricanes with a first-pe- riod power play goal and two assists. Colton Adam, Josh Dickie, and Darby Crozier each added a goal and an assist. Austin Larochelle also scored, while Parker Wall, Tristan Carey, Thomas Hammerton, and Dominic Vallee all added assists. Roh stopped the first 25 shots he faced before Matthew Bachynski beat him for a power play goal in the second period to make it 3-1. Caleb Griffin added a fouron-four goal in the third period to cut the deficit to 5-2 for the Wild, who had finished sixth in the regular season with a 16-14-6 record.
Defenseman Shayne Bissonnette felt Roh’s play was one of the keys to victory.
“He really stepped up tonight because he is usually letting rebounds out. He did good tonight and kept us in the game.”
“We played really well and I think there was a lot of guys on tonight,” said Dickie after Sunday’s win. “We were putting the puck in the net, we barely out-shot them. We usually outshoot teams by 20-30 shots but it was close today. We had a lot of penalties but we killed them off and we played really good.”
The Hurricanes killed off seven of the Wild’s eight power play opportunities.
“Yeah they put the guys out that have been doing PK all year,” said Bissonnette. “They were doing pretty well and getting pucks down the ice and we got through most of those penalties so it wasn’t too bad.”
The Hurricanes had been upended 3-2 in their playoff opener on March 5 in Regina. Regina got goals from Brayden Larkin, Colby Brandt, and Fraiser Belanger over 9:50 in the second period to take a 3-0 lead. Wittman and Dickie both scored in the third period but Swift Current was unable to draw even. Adam had two assists and Hammerton and Wittman added singles in the loss.
Thursday, the Hurricanes got goals from four different skaters to keep their season alive.
Wittman and Dickie each had a goal and an assist and Logan Tisdale made 16 saves as the Hurricanes forced a third and deciding game in their opening round best-of-three series against the visiting Regina Wild.
Larochelle and Crozier also scored as the Hurricanes won 4-0 while outshooting the visitors 35-16. Wall, Hammerton, and Trenton Zakaluzny added assists.
“I feel like we didn’t really show up and give our best the first game,” explained Bissonnette. “But we came back in the second game and beat them pretty good. Tonight was kind of injuries so we didn’t do too bad tonight.”
Dickie admitted that they may have underestimated their opponent.
“Yeah, I think going in we probably thought two games and out and moving on. That first game in Regina, there was a bit of a scheduling issue, we went in there flat and lost, but we came back and got’er done.”
“I feel like that first game was kind of motivation where we didn’t want to be losing and be out for the season,” said Bissonnette. “Then we just decided to bring it and we put the puck in the net and buried a lot of our chances.”
The Hurricanes finished second in the regular season with a 25-7-4 record. They were still awaiting their second-round opponent but they will either face the third-seeded Moose Jaw Warriors or the fourth seeded Estevan Bruins.
“We just have to keep playing physical, keep driving the net, keep the chemistry going with our lines and it is going well,” said Dickie.