Herder opens tonight
Games 1 and 2 in best-of-five series go tonight and Sunday in Harbour Grace
The 2017 version of the Herder Memorial Trophy provincial senior hockey championship series opens tonight in Harbour Grace.
The Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprises Ceebee Stars are set to take on the winner of the Central West Senior Hockey League champ in Game 1 of the best-offive Herder series 7:30 tonight at the Danny Cleary Community Centre. The Central West winner was determined last night in a Game 7 played between the Grand Fallswindsor Cataracts and Clarenville Caribous.
Ian Moores won’t admit as much, but one would have to figure the Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprises Ceebee Stars have a distinct advantage in the first two games of the Herder Memorial Trophy final that starts tonight.
For starters, the Ceebees are home for the first couple of games in the best-of-five provincial senior hockey final, slated for 7:30 tonight and 2 o’clock Sunday afternoon at the Danny Cleary Community Centre in Harbour Grace.
The Cleary rink really does offer home ice advantage, as the Ceebees have lost only once at the brand new rink in 17 Avalon East Senior Hockey League games this season.
Secondly, the Ceebees’ opponent was only decided last night, in Game 7 of the Central West Senior Hockey League which was played at Joe Byrne Memorial Stadium in Grand Fallswindsor.
Either the Cataracts, threetime defending Herder champs, or the upstart Clarenville Caribous will meet the Ceebees, winners of the Avalon East circuit this season, for this year’s all-newfoundland senior hockey championship.
So, in addition to home ice advantage, the Ceebees are playing a team that bussed to Harbour Grace this morning, and one that is facing a three-games-inthree-days scenario.
“We’re probably more rested,” acknowledged Moores, the Ceebees’ bench boss, “but I wouldn’t think there’s a major advantage there.
“You have to remember the players on both teams are, for the most part, young fellas, and they’re all in good shape.”
Still, without divulging any game plan secrets, Moores said the Ceebees will try to take it to the road-weary Cataracts or Caribous.
“We’ve got a young team, a team with good speed and we’ve got some sandpaper, too,” he said. “Of course, we’re going to try and force the issue.”
The Ceebees were dominant in the East loop this season, going from worst to first. Harbour Grace was 18-3 in the regular season, and 8-3 in the playoffs.
Entering last night’s deciding game, the Cataracts had clawed back from a 3-1 deficit in the Central West final following a pair of improbable 5-2 (the Cats scored four times in the third period) and 3-2 (Grand Fallswindsor trailed 2-1 with five minutes remaining in regulation time) wins in Games 5 and 6.
Moores, as one would expect, said it meant no matter to him or the Ceebees which team they face off with in the Herder final.
Either way, he said, the rosters on both teams have not changed a lot over the years, and the Ceebees know what to expect from either Grand Falls-windsor or Clarenville.
“There are a lot of returning faces, so there’s nothing new to us,” said Moores, whose Ceebees participated in the old provincial senior league with the Cataracts and Caribous up to 2014-15.
The Ceebees coach reports a relatively healthy lineup, with the exception of team captain Robert Slaney, who sustained a concussion from what Moores dubbed a “dirty hit” in Game 1 of the East final against the Tapper’s Northeast Eagles.
Slaney definitely won’t play this weekend, and Moores isn’t hopeful of having the former pro in the lineup next weekend.
In the meantime, the Ceebees, who are allowed six strengthening players by Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador for the Herder final, have added to their roster Shane Boland, Ray Dalton, Daniel Dalton and Jeremy Nicholas from the Southern Shore Breakers, and Daniel Cadigan and Jeremy Kavanagh from the Eagles.
All six, he said, will dress this weekend.
Despite the sudden influx of six new skaters, Moores said he’s not concerned with upsetting any dressing room dynamic with the possibility of sitting out Ceebees who have played all season.
“We’ve already addressed that,” he said. “Everybody in that room wants to put the best team on the ice to compete for the Herder.
“Everybody is on the same page.”
After this weekend, the final shifts to the home rink of either the Cataracts or Caribous for Games 3, 4 and 5, if necessary, beginning next Friday. If the series is extended beyond three games, Game 4 will be played next Saturday and Game 5 on Sunday, April 2.