In a Bizarro World rematch of the 2016 playoffs, the North Van Wolf Pack will be facing off against the Delta Ice Hawks in an opening round PJHL series this week.
Last year the Pack rolled into the playoffs as the league’s regular season champs and were promptly dispatched in six games by the Ice Hawks, who scored the upset as the fourth-ranked team in the Tom Shaw Conference. This year the roles are reversed as the Ice Hawks are the top dogs in the conference while the rebuilding Wolf Pack straggled into the playoffs in fourth place.
With this year’s rematch, North Van has a chance to return the favour, although revenge is not the emotion that will be driving his team, said Wolf Pack head coach Bayne Koen.
“That’s what happens when you have a 10-team league,” he said about the repeated playoff matchup. “We’re not looking at the situation like, ‘we’ve got to beat these guys just because they beat us last year.’ We want to win hockey games. … It doesn’t matter if it’s Delta or Richmond or whoever. Last year is last year, we’re a completely different team minus maybe about four guys who are still around from last year.”
The Wolf Pack does look a lot different than it did last year, while the Ice Hawks have returned with a balanced, veteran lineup that edged out Grandview in the battle for first place in the conference this season. While none of the Hawks soared to the top of the league’s leaderboard this year, four of the team’s players landed in the top-20 in scoring.
“They have a lot of depth, it’s a pretty balanced attack,” said Koen. “We expect them to come out flying and play a very physical, run-and-gun style which is kind of the way they play right now.”
The numbers favour the Ice Hawks heading into the series – North Van defeated Delta 5-2 on opening night back in September but the Pack has lost all five matchups since then. Delta is also coming in hot with a 7-2-0-1 record in their last 10 games, while North Van has just one regulation win in their last 10.
Koen, however, is stressing to his players that none of those numbers mean anything when the puck drops to open a new playoff series.
“It’s a new season – we’re not even worried about what happened yesterday,” he said. “Anything can happen. I’ve been around a long time in this league and have seen it all. I told the guys let’s be prepared, let’s be excited, let’s have some fun and be ready to rock and roll here.”
The Pack will need to stick to their system and play as a team if they hope to bring down the Hawks, said Koen.
“We’ve got to pick up our intensity and excitement level a little bit more because obviously it gets heightened as each shift goes on in the playoffs. We’ve got to come in and be a duck, let the water roll off our backs, don’t get down when things don’t go our way. It’s a process that we have to stay to, and hopefully the hockey gods help us stick to our guns and the guys perform. I know they’ll be ready to go tonight.”
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The series begins tonight at the Ladner Leisure Centre with puck drop scheduled for 7:35 p.m. Game 2 is scheduled for Friday in Ladner while Game 3 will be played Saturday night starting at 7 p.m. at Harry Jerome Arena. For updated schedules and results visit pjhl.net.
