No one said it was going to be easy.
The Grandview Steelers face an uphill battle in their best-of-seven quarterfinal series against the Delta Ice Hawks.
Grandview trails Delta
2-0 after the top team in the Pacific Junior B Hockey League racked up wins of 4-0 and 6-2 this week.
Wednesday’s setback showed the gulf that separates the two, at least on that day. Down 2-1 in the second period, the Steelers’ Jarod Yau and Brodie Crawford were called for back-to-back cross checking penalties, leading to a pair of Ice Hawk goals.
The deficit proved too much to overcome.
Scoring for Grandview were Nico Bruno and Mateo Coltellaro.
A day earlier, the Steelers were unable to put a puck past Jordan Naylor in the series opener.
To extend the series, Grandview will need to win at least one of this weekend’s games at the Burnaby Winter Club, with Game 3 on Friday (7:30 p.m.), and Game 4 on Sunday (7:15 p.m.).
Heading into the series, the well-documented story of David and Goliath came to mind.
The Grandview Steelers are still hoping that the Delta Ice Hawks have forgotten it.
The Ice Hawks wrapped up an incredible regular season run with the league’s best record, at 37-4-0-3. That’s four regulation losses.
As daunting as it seems on paper, Steelers head coach Stevan Matic said prior to Game 1that this was an opportunity to expand on what has been a solid run to end the regular season at 25-16-1-2.
“All the work we put in over the past few months is about to pay off,” said Matic, while acknowledging the challenge ahead. “We definitely heated up over the last few weeks and had a chance to rest some of our players (Sunday) for the series. It’s going to be a tough one.”
Grandview wrapped up the regular season with a 4-2 loss to Richmond on Sunday, with a number of regulars in the stands.
Prior to that, they reeled off a 6-2 run that featured a pair of victories over the Ice Hawks, including a 2-1 regulation win on Feb. 4.
They also bested Delta 2-1 in overtime last month.
It was a glimpse into what Delta brings to the rink and how the Steelers have to play if they hope to extend their season.
“(Delta’s) speed – they are very explosive and we have to slow them down somehow,” said Matic. “It’s going to take a five-man unit approach, and then we have a lot of confidence in (goaltender Cale Dolan). When you have great goaltending you have a chance.”
The playoffs continue tonight (Friday), 7:30 p.m. at Burnaby Winter Club, and Game 4 on Sunday, 7:15 p.m. at BWC.
If necessary, the series will continue Feb. 20 (in Delta), Feb. 25 (at BWC) and Feb. 27 (in Delta).
