A double overtime goal sent the North Van Wolf Pack players and fans into a frenzy Wednesday night as the team completed a four game sweep over the Grandview Steelers to earn a berth in the PJHL championship final series.
North Van trailed 3-0 halfway through game 4 at the Burnaby Winter Club as the Steelers fought to extend the series, but the Pack came back with goals from Alex Suprynowicz and Nicholas Frederick in the second period and a tying marker from Raihan Kheraj midway through the third to send it into overtime. The teams immediately jumped into a 10-minute overtime period but no one could break the deadlock on the choppy ice. A Zamboni break before the second OT allowed the Pack to load up for a quick push that led to the series-clinching goal from Ryan Stack 90 seconds into the period.
“We got a break, got some fresh ice and we came out and won the opening face-off and then they never got the puck into our zone, basically,” said Wolf Pack head coach and general manager Matt Samson.
Defenceman Jacob Callas fired a pass from the point to Stack who corralled the puck on the right face-off dot, spun towards the net and fired a shot top-shelf short side to set off a raucous celebration right beside the Wolf Pack bench.
: The shot that sent the @northvanwolfpac back to the PJHL Finals.#PJHL pic.twitter.com/p6zh28iwlB
— PJHL (@Pacific_Junior) March 5, 2020
The win sent the Wolf Pack to the PJHL championship series for the second straight season as they will look to defend their title against the Aldergrove Kodiaks.
North Van is coming off a dream regular season that saw them set a PJHL record for points as they won 40 of their 44 games. They quickly learned, however, that the playoffs are a different animal, losing game 1 of their opening round series against the White Rock Whalers. There have been some tight games since then but North Van has come out on top in all of them, with yesterday’s victory extending their playoff win streak to eight games.
The game 1 loss against White Rock was a classic “wake-up call” for the Pack.
“Obviously you don’t want to lose game 1, but I think it showed these guys what playoff hockey is,” said Samson. “That was a team that was well prepared and they had some guys step up, and you see that playoff hockey is different than the regular season. You see it in every league. You kind of throw the records out the window. … It was good for us. We got rolling. Grandview gave us a good matchup in game 1, and I think at the end our depth was a bit of a difference. They were pretty tired towards the last half of game 4, the ice was slanted towards their end. We’re buying in that it’s playoff hockey and everything is a little bit different. Nobody is handing us a championship.”
Wolf Pack captain Lucas Barker has a big lead in the playoff points race with 10 goals and 11 assists in nine games. Callas is leading all defencemen with 15 playoff points. The Pack, however, will continue to be without Dominic Davis, the league’s top goal scorer in the regular season, who has missed the entire PJHL playoffs with an injury and will not return for the finals.
Aldergove finished second in the PJHL’s Harold Brittain conference before knocking off third-ranked Ridge Meadows in a four-game sweep in round 1 and fourth-seeded Mission in five games in round 2. North Van won three of the four matchups between the two teams in the regular season, with Aldergrove’s win coming on the last day of the season.
“Aldregrove is going to be similar to Grandview,” said Samson. “They’re a team that is on a bit of a roll right now. … Their second half of the season was really good, so they’re trending up right now.”
The key for the Wolf Pack will be matching Aldergrove’s effort level, said Samson.
“They’re going to be about work ethic and putting pucks on net and forechecking and finishing their hits. Like any team, they’re not going to talk about out-skilling us, their effort is going to be there for every shift. That’s the thing that we have to match. … That is going to be their mindset – outwork us, try to get us frustrated. Hopefully we can match their work ethic. But they’ll be hungry, and they’ve got some momentum on their side. It should be a good series.”
Game 1 and Game 2 of the final series will be played Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15 at Harry Jerome Arena. Puck drop both nights will be 7 p.m.
