The Innisfail Midget A Flyers are moving on to the semifinals in the Central Alberta Hockey League playoffs.
The flyers swept the Medicine Hat Hounds 2-0 in the best-of-three quarter-final series, winning Game 1 at home 2-0 on Feb. 20 and Game 2 9-3 on Feb. 21 in Medicine Hat.
“We won two (games) straight. It gives us a little break so we don't have to rush into the next series too quickly,” said Dez Lorencz, manager of the Flyers.
Lorencz said despite having a shortened roster at times, the team had a good season and is ready to face Chestermere in the next round.
“We only have 14 skaters to start with, and in midgets you're running into injuries and suspensions so a lot of the time we didn't have a full lineup. When we did have a full lineup we beat Chestermere twice this year,” said Lorencz, noting their first-place finish in the league.
“We're just as good as any other team in the league when we have a full lineup. Hopefully going into the second round we'll have a full squad,” he said, adding the intense rivalry between the two teams and the anticipated physical series against Chestermere.
Head coach Mike Piesse was pleased with his team's efforts this year.
“We've been really solid for the second half of the season,” said Piesse. “We were only 4-5-0 at the Christmas break and we finished the regular season 7-1-1 in the second half. We've also won the two league playoff games since, so we've gone 9-1-1 in our last 11 games in the league.”
Overall the team finished the regular season in fourth place with a comfortable 11-6-1 record.
The coach pointed to the young midget A team this season with seven first- year players ranging in age from 15 to 17. Despite some of the team's inexperience at the midget level, they provided some defence this season, he said.
“We're not giving up any goals right now, we're playing pretty solid defence,” said Piesse. “Both of our goalies have a 2.2 goals against average (GAA). We allowed 40 goals in 18 games (in the regular season) so we kept our opponents off the scoreboard.”
Piesse won the league title with the Innisfail Bantam Flyers of the North Central Hockey League last year and hopes to do the same with the Midget A Flyers this season.
He is looking forward to a competitive series against Chestermere in the semifinals.
“We've had some good games with them all season,” said Piesse. “It will be a good series and I think it's one we can win.”
Game 1 of the CAHL semifinal series takes place Feb. 27 in Chestermere. Game 2 is on March 4 in Innisfail. Puck drop is 8 p.m.
Dez Lorencz
"We're just as good as any other team in the league when we have a full lineup. Hopefully going into the second round we'll have a full squad."
