DIDSBURY -- Despite losing their last game of the season, the Mountain View Colts are confident heading into the Heritage League playoffs.
The Colts finished up the 2018-19 regular season with a 22-win, 14-loss, 2-tie record, good for third place in the North Division of the Heritage League.
The Colts will have home ice advantage in their first round best-of-three playoff series against Ponoka, which starts Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Didsbury Memorial Complex.
Game 2 is Saturday in Ponoka, while Game 3, if necessary, would be Sunday back in Didsbury at 8 p.m.
In their last regular season game on Saturday in Red Deer, the Colts lost 7-2 to the Vipers. Scoring for the Colts were Laine Rothenbusch and Josh Gette, with both coming in the first period.
Colts coach Rob Turville said that with a three-game series, the team will need to be sharp each game.
"In a best-of-three, you definitely can't have a night off," said Turville. "It doesn't matter who you play against, playoffs is a completely different animal."
Turville said that despite the team having a perfect record this season against Ponoka, the Colts aren't taking them lightly.
"Yes, we had success against them going 4-0 against them," he said. "But in playoffs anything can happen especially in a short series. You have to show up and play a perfect 60 minutes. There's no room for error in a short series."
Turville said the team will be working mainly on special teams heading into playoffs.
"The biggest thing for us is tightening down on our power play and our penalty kill units," he said. "We want to make sure everyone is on the same page. We've had some injuries and illnesses over the last couple weeks. Hopefully we'll get some bodies back and that'll add depth to our lineup. Getting their condition up will be key for us."
Colts captain Alan Klinck said that playing strong defensively will be one of the keys for the team in the playoffs.
"There are a lot of high-octane teams in our division," said Klinck. "To go deep we're going to have to shut them down defensively and hopefully put some pucks in the net."
Klinck said the team is hoping to go deep in the playoffs.
"We're hoping to get to the final against Airdrie in the north," he said. "They're definitely the top team in the league but I think if we buckle down we have a chance of taking them."
