To say that the North Van Wolf Pack dug themselves out of a hole in their best-of-seven PJHL championship final against the Mission City Outlaws would be underselling their hole-escaping abilities.
It’s more like the Wolf Pack rocketed out of the hole. But what a hole it was.
North Van, the regular season champs and decent favourites over Mission City, had a disastrous start in their first-ever trip to the finals. The Wolf Pack took a 3-1 lead in Game 1 but then let off the gas, allowing the Outlaws to storm back and claim a 4-3 victory.
“It was really disappointing,” recalled Wolf Pack head coach Matt Samson, “especially after we let Grandview take a series lead (in the conference finals). I thought we’d learned our lesson.”
It got worse. In Game 2 the Wolf Pack played a more complete game, out-shooting the Outlaws 48-25, but weren’t rewarded with goals, losing 4-2 to fall behind 0-2 in the series.
“It was just one of those games where we felt like we should win but we couldn’t finish,” said Samson. “That’s hockey. But now all of a sudden instead of 1-1 it’s 0-2 and we’re in a big hole.”
It got worse. Knowing that Game 3 was basically a must-win, the Wolf Pack were fired up for a win and promptly . . . fell behind 4-1 in the first period. Now that’s a deep hole. But Samson said his captains, all 20-year-olds in their final junior seasons, stayed cool in the dressing room during the first intermission.
“I didn’t really say much — they kind of took control of the room,” said Samson. “They did a great job — that leadership really helped. . . . The captains got those guys fired up and they came out with a different energy level.”
North Van scored quickly to cut the deficit to two but then gave up a fifth goal. Trailing 2-0 in the series and 5-2 in the game, North Van desperately needed to find another level. They did. In fact they found several new levels, and it seemingly took no time at all. Mitch Crisanti scored almost immediately after Mission City’s fifth goal, opening the floodgates.
“You could feel the momentum,” said Samson. “That was a huge goal, it was like 16 seconds after the fifth one. Now it’s 5-3 and we were going. Everybody was flying.”
Over the next period and a half North Van proceeded to score an incredible nine unanswered goals to win 11-5.
The assault was led by the team’s top line with Crisanti scoring a hat trick while adding four assists, centreman Spencer Quon picking up a goal and seven assists and Brodyn Neilson firing in two goals and two assists.
“They were relentless,” Samson said of his top line. “They wanted it so bad. They’re our top guys for a reason. . . . They’re usually a threat to score every time they’re on the ice, but they just basically all said, ‘We’re not losing this game. We’re not losing this series.’”
The onslaught continued in Game 4 as the Pack fell behind 1-0 but then went on another run, scoring seven unanswered goals en route to a 7-2 win.
Now the series is tied 2-2 but North Van seemingly has all the momentum, outscoring Mission 16-2 over the last five and a half periods. Samson said he’s happy to be here but added that it’s been a painful process to get to this point.
“It’s been really stressful and wild,” he said with a tired chuckle, adding that he feels it’s clear now that his team has the firepower to win the series. The Wolf Pack out-shot Mission 175-116 through the first four games.
“We could have had seven or eight goals each game,” he said. “Our Grade A chances compared to their grade A chances — it was not even close. It was just a matter of time. Hockey has a funny way of working things out sometimes. They get a couple of bounces in the first two games and then we got some puck luck. But I think our puck luck comes from working hard, bearing down and having that desire to make this a series.”
It won’t be easy to finish it off though. Samson said the two teams are really getting to know each other now after not playing very many regular season games against each other.
“Now it’s a playoff series for sure — the intensity is ramped up,” he said. “I think we know that we’ve got a feel for these guys now. We’ve played them as many times in the last week as we normally do in a year so now we’ve got more familiarity, the rivalries are there. They’re gunning for some of our guys, we’ve got an eye on some of their guys.”
The series resumes Tuesday, March 24 at a new location — the North Shore Winter Club. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. The series will all be over by the weekend with Game 6 going Friday night starting at 6:45 p.m. at the Mission Leisure Centre and Game 7, if necessary, going Saturday night starting at 7:15 p.m. at the North Shore Winter Club.
