North Van Wolf Pack head coach and general manager Matt Samson may never know exactly what happened in the third period of Game 4 of their PJHL playoff series against the Richmond Sockeyes.
It’s not that he doesn’t have the opportunity — the video is right there waiting for him to watch it. Heck, the highlights are even up on YouTube for anyone in the world to see.
But for Samson those highlights are more like a vile horror film, too gruesome to watch.
“I couldn’t stomach watching it this morning, and definitely not last night,” he said Thursday, still reeling more than 12 hours after the fateful period ended. “I’m at a loss for words. I can’t watch that third. I kind of know in my head, remembering how I think it went, but that may not be the case.”
The details are this: the Pack was behind 0-3 in their conference finals series and in all likelihood headed out of the playoffs soon, but on Wednesday it appeared they’d get a reprieve as they took a 6-3 lead into the third period.
Then Richmond scored four minutes and 52 seconds into the period. Then again 22 seconds later. Then again 25 seconds after that. Three goals in 47 seconds, and the score was now tied. The game winner for Richmond came three minutes later and the insurance marker, the fifth goal of the period for the Sockeyes, followed four and a half minutes after.
It was a stunning turn of events, all the more stunning for Samson who said that his team actually wasn’t playing all that poorly. All three of the Richmond goals that came in the one-minute flurry were scramble plays in the North Van zone that ended with the puck finding a Sockeye stick.
“Any of those three plays I think we make the play to get it out of the zone more times than not. . . . Our backcheckers were in position, we were all defensively where we wanted the guys — they just made the plays, got some bounces,” said Samson.
“We just couldn’t get a bounce. I hate to use that complaint, but the first goal we had a great backcheck, (North Van’s Kyle) Hoekstra goes to make a play on the puck and it hits his stick and basically it’s a tape-to-tape pass to (Richmond’s Liam) Lawson with a wide-open net. It’s just a bad bounce there. . . . They weren’t all over us. We would get a chance and then they would come down, they wouldn’t have numbers, they’d just throw a puck to the net and it would hit somebody and they’d have a chance. We didn’t have any big breakdowns, it wasn’t breakaways, it wasn’t two-on-ones, it wasn’t 30 seconds of sustained pressure to wear us out. It was just kind of off a transition, off a rush.”
It all left Samson scratching his head.
“Did we do anything wrong? I don’t know. We got the matchups we wanted, we had the guys on the ice. It wasn’t a situation where we were just getting outplayed, it was all just kind of real quick, some plays, some bounces and it’s in the back of the net. That’s junior hockey.”
The hard luck period put an end to a hard luck series for the Wolf Pack that saw them lose the first three games by identical 4-3 scorelines, including two double overtime games on the road in Richmond.
“We definitely were right there with them. Bounces here and there — three one-goal games, had leads in three of the four games,” said Samson, adding that the Pack almost took control right from Game 1, a double overtime loss.
“If I told you (North Van goalie Braden) Krogfoss made 50 saves, our powerplay scored two goals and we didn’t give anything up on the PK (penalty kill), you’d probably think we won the game. Nine times out of 10 that’s a recipe for getting a win. But we didn’t.”
The coach, however, admitted in the end the Wolf Pack didn’t defend well enough against Richmond’s balanced attack. Five different Sockeyes scored in the fateful third period of Game 4.
“We gave up 20 goals in four games,” he said. “That’s not good enough. We didn’t defend well enough, we didn’t keep the puck out of our net as a group. It wasn’t all on our goalies or on our D-men — as a group we didn’t do a good enough job of keeping the puck out of our net. When you score six goals at home, you’ve got to win that game.”
Richmond, the defending league, provincial and national Jr. B champions, will now move on to their third PJHL championship series in the past four seasons where they’ll meet the Aldergrove Kodiaks, who knocked off the Abbotsford Pilots in their conference finals series.
The young Sockeyes are on a major roll, having won 15 straight games. They’ve only lost twice since November, putting up a 34-2 record during
that stretch.
“They’re a good team,” said Samson, adding that he hopes North Van is on a similar path having finally experienced a little success in the playoffs. The Wolf Pack’s opening round win over Delta was the first playoff series win in the six-year history of the franchise. “When you have a winning tradition (like Richmond’s) you’re able to recruit players to come play for you, and that’s what we’re starting to be able to do.”
The sting of Wednesday night’s loss, however, will keep Samson from savouring North Van’s success for a while.
“It’s the best season we’ve had — it’ll take me a while to really appreciate that, but it’s good for the franchise,” he said. “I’d like to thank all the fans who supported us and all the sponsors who helped us have the success we did this year.”
Samson also tipped his hat to the team’s three graduating 20-year-olds. There may be more turnover before next season as younger players come and go, but scoring ace Marcus Houck, captain Jamie Creamore and assistant captain Patrick Payne have all played their final games with the Wolf Pack.
“All three of them played huge roles on our team,” said Samson. “They all played different roles and they’re all great. They all wore a letter on their jersey so we’re going to have to find a new leadership group.”
Houck, Spencer Quon and Mitchell Crisanti led the Wolf Pack on the scoresheet in the playoffs, each racking up 12 points in 10 games.
