Like the Canadian women’s hockey team, the Grandview Steelers know what it’s like to lose a close game.
And while their loss didn’t come in an Olympic gold medal final shootout, the Steelers’ season came to a close on Sunday in a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Delta Ice Hawks.
It may have had none of the gravitas of that Olympic final, but there was a finality to it that, at least for the 20-year-olds on Grandview, was heavy and painful.
It marked a four-game sweep at the hands of the regular season champions, who out-scored the Steelers 14-6 over the Pacific
Junior B Hockey League quarter-final series.
“We played some good hockey and kept it close in our rink,” remarked coach Stevan Matic. “But to play them tough in two one-goal games, we still couldn’t get on the right side of it.”
In Sunday’s contest, Grandview grabbed a lead late in the first on markers from 20-year-olds Jeffrey Wong and Brodie Crawford. Delta replied with two swift tallies to start the second frame, but Wong’s second of the night on a powerplay evened it out 3-3 with a period to play.
A shorthanded goal by Gary Dhaliwal midway through the third gave the Ice Hawks a lead they would protect.
It was a similar story for Grandview two days earlier in a 2-1 loss, where Mateo Coltellaro scored in the second period to make it 1-0.
Delta countered with two of their own, the winner coming with 5:47 left in regulation.
“It’s unfortunate that our powerplay wasn’t more effective down the stretch,” said Matic. “One more goal either night could have kept the series going.”
Delta took the opening two games in Ladner by scores of 4-0 and 6-2.
Sunday's contest was the final game for seven 20 year olds, including Nico Bruno, Ian Prevost and Wong.
In a season where they spent the first three months challenging for second place in the Tom Shaw Conference, and slid to fourth over the final month, much was learned about the character of the team.
Matic said the organization will roll up its sleeves in the next few months to recruit for 2018-19.
“We’re losing three forwards, two centres and a defenceman, and right now we don’t anticipate seeing (No. 1 goalie Cale) Dolan back after the strong season he had,” said Matic. “We had a lot of young players on the team (this year) and we feel they progressed well. We have to find a bunch of players to complement them, so we’ll spend the next couple of months or so scouting and recruiting and get right back at it.”
