The Mavs ended their regular season play with a bit of a bonecrusher against Red Deer last Wednesday night, but toppled the third-ranked Renegades 12-6, finishing second overall in the south conference of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.
"They are one of the rougher teams that we play against," said captain Kurt Goller. "We just have to keep our cool and play our game, because we know that we are faster and better than them, so we've just got to stick with it until it starts working."
The Mavs may not have kept their cool completely ñ while Red Deer leads the league in penalty minutes, collecting 54 in this one, Olds racked up 59 minutes, including two game offences that saw assistant captain Nick Stauffer ejected for fighting and Grayson Cameron benched for unsportsmanlike behaviour.
The results of the last regular season game were effectively meaningless as far as the standings were concerned ñ the Lethbridge Cudas had first place locked in, while the Renegades were unable to catch the second-ranked Mavs.
The Mavericks now have bye in the first round of playoffs, thanks to their top-two conference ranking, but expect to face the Renegades in the second round.
Assistant coach Gary Gaudette says the Renegades may have been kicking it up a notch knowing they'll be the next team Olds faces.
"They want, probably, just to set the tone," said Gaudette.
If the Mavs advance through the second round, they will head to provincials, where the first game acts as the league's south division conference final, and they will likely face Lethbridge, who have handed Olds their only two losses of the season.
Provincial prelims, however, are round robin play, which means even with a first game loss to Lethbridge, both teams could still face each other in the finals. In fact that was exactly what happened last year, and the Mavs managed to best the Cudas to claim the provincial title.
Gaudette says they will need to come out stronger on both offence and defence to have a chance.
"They've got a strong defence, and our guys are probably a little hesitant going through," he said. Goller added that the team will need to get some good training sessions in, where they practise like they are playing the Cudas.
"They have a really fast-paced offence that is tough for us to keep up with, and their defence as well is pretty solid," he said.
But Goller said repeating last year's provincials victory over the Cudas is doable.
"The last time we played them, we definitely showed that they're beatable," he said. "If we play like the team that we are, we can definitely repeat."
The Mavs will enter the second round of playoffs on home turf the weekend of July 14-15.
