OLDS — The Olds Grizzlys can put the regular season behind them as they now engage in a play-in series versus the Grande Prairie Storm starting March 7, with the hope of getting into the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) playoffs.
Game 1 on Thursday and Game 2 on Friday are scheduled to be held in Grande Prairie at 7 p.m. Game 3 will be held Sunday, March 10 at the Sportsplex in Olds, starting at 5 p.m.
If the Grizzlys push the series to a fourth game, it would also be held in Olds on Monday, March 11 at 7 p.m.
A fifth and deciding game if necessary would be held in Grande Prairie on Wednesday, March 13.
The Whitecourt Wolverines won the Dave Dutchak trophy as the AJHL regular season champions for the first time in that team's history.
On paper at least, the play-in series will be a challenge for the last-place Grizzlys, as the Storm finished the regular season in sixth place in the now 11-team league with 55 points (24-26-4-3) 29 points ahead of the Grizzlys (10-41-3-3).
Grizzlys assistant coach and assistant general manager Pete de Graaf says the team is optimistic about their chances in the short series, despite the stats, and a disappointing final weekend when they lost both games of a home-and-home series against the third-place Calgary Canucks.
“I think the guys are feeling good,” he said during an interview with the Albertan.
“The guys’ mindset is that there's no pressure on us, the pressure’s on them. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose and they have everything to lose, so we're going to use that to our advantage.”
The assistant coach admitted the Storm have some very good forwards that the Grizzlys will have to keep in check.
“They're good team, but we we've beaten them and we know we can beat them again,” he said. “We just have to play our A game for 60 minutes and we think we can beat anybody, if we can stay consistent like that.”
He likes the team’s chances if Aidan Comeau, their first-string goaltender is hot in the series.
“When Comeau is actually really dialed in, he’s just really tough to beat and we just need that performance from him and we believe we're going to get it,” he said.
The home-and-home series loss Friday and Saturday night, March 1 and 2, was pretty tough for the team.
He figures that in both games, the Grizzlys were distracted, already looking ahead to the play-in series.
On Friday night, the Canucks beat the Grizzlys 7-4.
The Grizzlys spotted the Canucks a three-goal lead in the first period before getting three goals in the second period, courtesy of Adam Lore, Braxton Thornton and Cade Moxham.
However, the Canucks scored one in that period as well, to make the score 4-3.
They scored two more in the third before Brodie Hankel answered with this second goal of the season.
The Canucks then sealed the win with an empty-netter.
Aidan Comeau stopped 44 of 50 shots he faced. The Grizzlys fired 31 shots at Calgary goaltender Julian Molinaro.
The Grizzlys went one for six on the power play. The Canucks went two for five with the man advantage.
“We actually beat them in the second and third period,” de Graaf said. “We just had a tough start.”
Friday’s contest was also Minor Hockey Night and Alumni Night, during which the Grizzlys honoured alumni from the 1991-1994 edition of the team.
During that period, the Grizzlys won three straight Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) championships. They were inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame last year.
On March 2 in Calgary, the Canucks went on to shut out the Grizzlys 5-0.
Thomas Samborski went the distance in net for the Grizzlys, stopping 35 of 40 shots. Molinaro tended net for the Canucks once again, stopping all 23 shots he faced.
The Grizzlys were zero for three with the man advantage, the Canucks one for five.
“I think knowing that we had this important series coming up and we just came out a little bit flat and we're not happy about that,” de Graaf said, but indicated that the past is the past.
“We do have a very young team,” he said (there were 14 rookies on the squad this season). “We have been gearing up for this play-in series and the guys are very motivated for it.”
