It’s a matchup that has seemed like destiny since the start of the PJHL season.
All year long the North Van Wolf Pack and Richmond Sockeyes battled for first in the league, eventually finishing just one point apart and 14 points ahead of the next-best team. Everything was set to see the two titans battle in the conference finals.
The only problem is that nobody bothered to tell the Grandview Steelers the plan. The Burnaby-based club had ideas of their own, upsetting the Sockeyes in Round 1 to book a seven-game date with their neighbours across the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing.
“I definitely thought we’d be facing Richmond,” said Wolf Pack head coach Matt Samson. “(But) playoffs you kind of throw the regular season out the window. Teams are going to bring their games to another level.”
Samson now knows first-hand what level the Steelers are on. Grandview came to North Van’s Harry Jerome Recreation Centre Tuesday night and stole Game 1 of the conference finals, erasing an early 3-0 deficit by scoring six unanswered goals in a 6-3 victory. It was a matchup of two teams on different sleep patterns — the Wolf Pack hadn’t played in a week after completing a four-game sweep of the Delta Ice Hawks while the Steelers were playing their third game in three nights following their seven-game war against the Sockeyes.
“I think a little bit of our rust showed in Game 1 against Grandview,” said Samson. “They have confidence right now. I think they were on a high coming off that series and they’re going to try to keep it rolling here.”
On paper it’s an uneven match — North Van placed seven players in the league’s top 40 for points while Grandview had just two — but Game 1 showed that the Steelers will present some tough challenges for the regular season champs. Grandview played hard-hitting, physical, abrasive hockey that threw North Van off its game. The Pack went 0-8 on the power play while taking bad penalties themselves, including a double minor and 10-minute misconduct for captain Brodyn Nielsen that swung the game in the second period. When he went in the box the score was 3-0 North Van. When he came out it was 4-3 Grandview.
Worse yet for the Pack, top-line centre Spencer Quon was goaded into a fight in the third period and will miss Games 2 and 3 with a suspension. Those are penalties the Pack just can’t take, said Samson.
“We’ve got to be smarter. If they want to go to the box that’s fine — we’ve got to play the game that got us the regular season championship. Work hard, use your feet. We can be physical as well but we don’t need to try to match them in terms of scrums after the whistle. We’re not going to be targeting guys on their team to go after like I think they are with us a little bit — and fair enough. I’d like to play five-on-five against these guys. There’s no way they can stay with us in a five-on-five game.”
The loss of Quon — North Van’s all-time leading scorer — hurts a lot, said Samson, particularly because his opponent was rookie defencman Alexander Rasovich whose loss won’t affect the Steelers nearly as much.
“If you’re a coach you’re going to take that trade-off every time. We’ve got to be smarter, we can’t just play into their hands,” said Samson. “They’re chippy and they’re chirpy.”
The Steelers, however, also showed some skill in their emphatic comeback. They’re being led by the duo of Timothy Chow — leading all playoff scorers with nine goals — and linemate Adam Rota.
“Those two guys are the most dangerous guys upfront and we’ve got to key in on them when they’re on the ice,” said Samson. “Our D has to be smarter, we have to know when they’re on the ice. If we can contain them, play a smart game, I think we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
On the other end of the rink the Steelers aren’t flashy but are playing tight, tough defence, said Samson.
“They play a good team system. We’re going to have to get pucks behind them and go to work here. We’re not going to beat these guys through the middle of the ice, toe-drag ’em and stuff like that. It’s not going to happen.”
The series, unexpected as it was before the playoffs began, looks like it will be a tight and tough one all the way through. Richmond may have been North Van’s foil all season long but the boys from Burnaby have always been the Wolf Pack’s biggest rivals, Samson said. Grandview scooped up a lot of North Shore players when the Wolf Pack was still based in Squamish, and even now there are several North Van and West Van kids on the roster.
The clubs are also so close geographically that the players all drive themselves to the games rather than taking the team bus.
“It’s good timing,” said Samson. “Our bus driver went on a cruise to Mexico.”
North Van will try to even the series in Game 2 starting at 7 p.m. at Harry Jerome Saturday night.
Games 3 and 4 will be played at the Burnaby Winter Club Sunday starting at 4 p.m. and Wednesday, March 11 at 7:15 p.m.
As long as the Wolf Pack can avoid getting swept, the teams will be back at Harry Jerome for Game 5 Friday, March 13 for a 7:45 p.m. puck drop. Game 7, if needed, will be at Harry Jerome on Monday, March 16 starting at 7:45 p.m.
