The games have all been decided by razor-thin margins as the North Van Wolf Pack has battled the Richmond Sockeyes through three epic contests in their seven-game PJHL conference finals series.
Unfortunately for the Wolf Pack, they’ve lost them all. Two went to double overtime and the third was a one-goal thriller, each resulting in the exact same 4-3 scoreline favouring the Fish.
The Pack will face elimination when they host Richmond for game 4 Wednesday night. A win would earn North Van at least one more trip to Richmond while a loss would end what will be, no matter what, the most successful season in the six-year history of the team.
The Wolf Pack finished second in the PJHL’s tough Tom Shaw conference and then dispatched third-seeded Delta in the opening round to earn the first playoff series victory in franchise history. But luck seems to have run out against the first-place Sockeyes, the defending league, provincial and national junior B champions.
In game 1 Thursday in Richmond, Quinton Blois gave North Van a 3-2 advantage midway through the third period but the lead lasted all of 14 seconds and the game went into overtime. The Pack’s Braden Krogfoss made a number of huge saves — Richmond out shot North Van 57-32 — but couldn’t stop Liam Lawson from potting the winner as the teams played 3-on-3 in the second overtime period.
On Saturday in North Vancouver the Pack fell behind 3-1 in the first period but battled back to tie it up early in the second. Richmond again responded quickly with Lawson doing the damage once more to get it to that fateful 4-3 scoreline less than a minute after North Van tied it up. From then on the Wolf Pack pressed, outshooting Richmond 14-7 in the third period, but couldn’t tie it up.
One night later Richmond Arena again housed a cruel fate for the Wolf Pack as they pushed the Sockeyes all the way to second overtime before Michael Scobie capped off a three-point night with his second goal of the game to push the Pack to the brink.
Game 4 goes Wednesday night starting at 7 p.m. at Harry Jerome Arena.
