It was a gut-punch loss for the North Van Wolf Pack.
Trailing the slumping Delta Ice Hawks for much of the game played Saturday night at Harry Jerome Arena, the Pack finally caught up and took a 4-3 lead with less than five minutes left. Delta tied it up with less than two minutes left and the game appeared headed to overtime but North Van's Mitchell Crisanti was given an odd interference penalty behind the play with less than one minute to go and the Ice Hawks took advantage.
Delta's Evan Grannary won the ensuing faceoff, dishing to Brent Chreptyk whose shot deflected off a stick and sailed over the head of Wolf Pack goalie Anders Ten Vaanholt, dropping under the crossbar and over the red line for one of the strangest game-winning goals you'll ever see.
"I don't think I've ever seen that," Wolf Pack head coach and general manager Matt Samson said about the chip shot that handed North Van the loss. "It's definitely frustrating. You have a lead late, at home, and end up not getting a point out of it."
In years gone by this could have been the type of loss that would derail the Wolf Pack's season, setting them up to miss the playoffs or be relegated to first-round playoff fodder. But those worries aren't there this time around. The Pack are in the middle of their best season ever, a big 10-game win streak having pushed them securely into second place in their conference, ahead of Delta and behind only the powerhouse Richmond Sockeyes.
Saturday's tough loss wasn't fun, but the team this year has the luxury of perspective offered by a bit of breathing room in the standings.
"It's pretty frustrating but I think we'll take a couple of days off, look at the big picture," said Samson. "The thing that's nice now is that it's not like every game is 'Holy Shit!' We know roughly where we're going to be."
The Pack definitely will be in the playoffs and will likely end up in second place, meaning they'll meet these same Ice Hawks in a seven-game first round series. The Wolf Pack have never won a playoff series in their five years in the PJHL.
This is their third season in North Van after starting off with three seasons in Squamish.
There are signs, however, that this will be the year for the breakthrough. The league's all-star game was played Monday night and six Wolf Pack players were invited, by far the most ever for the team. The all-star invitees included forwards Spencer Quon, Marcus Houck and Otis Goldman, defencemen Dyllan Quon and Shane Kumar and goaltender Ten Vaanholt.
Houck and Spencer Quon continue to pile up the points up front with Quon sitting second in the league with 56 points in 35 games while Houck, who sat out Saturday's game with a shoulder injury, has notched 44 points in 31 games to place sixth amongst the league leaders.
Rookie Goldman has also played well as the team's second line centre, scoring 29 points in 34 games, while Kumar has played big minutes on defence since coming over in a trade earlier this season.
Samson called Dyllan Quon, Spencer's twin brother, "the most improved player in the league, hands down."
Dyllan has 32 points in 34 games to place second in scoring for defenceman. Ten Vaanholt, meanwhile, has formed a stingy partnership with co-starter Braden Krogfoss. Both are top-five in the league in goals-against average, wins and save percentage.
"Both our goaltenders have been great," said Samson. "You could flip a coin on one of them or send both of them (to the all-star game)."
Add it all up and North Van seems ready to take that next step when the playoffs begin in a little more than a month. The Wolf Pack even popped into first place in the conference earlier in January, although their stellar play was somehow topped by Richmond who are in the midst of a 13-game win streak.
"We won 10 games in a row and we lost ground on Richmond," said Samson with a laugh, adding that it was still nice to have a sniff of first place this late in the season. The Wolf Pack have never been better than third place in January of any previous season.
The road gets tough for the Wolf pack in the next week as they take on the Aldergrove Kodiaks, the No. 1 team in the Harold Brittain conference, tonight in Aldergrove and again on Saturday night at Harry Jerome Arena.
After that it'll be a Jan. 23 game on the road against Richmond before the Pack close out the month at home against the last place North Delta Devils Jan. 25. For full schedules and results visit pjhl.net.
