The Sundre bantam Huskies have secured a spot in the Central Alberta Hockey League’s final playoff series and are officially in the running to bring home a championship banner.
However, the squad was unable to proceed to provincials despite fighting hard against Duchess, who the Huskies beat 3-1 at home on Tuesday, Feb. 20 before going on the road on Friday, Feb. 23, when the competition came back strong to win 7-1, said Coach Andrew Perry, adding the provincial qualifier was a two-game series based on total goals.
But the Huskies have otherwise been performing well, and the team recently won in two games the first round of playoffs in a best-of-three series against West View, said Perry, adding the defeat against Duchess "put a little more jump in our step.”
The tier 4 squad, which is among five other teams in its division, has during practice been largely focused on "the little stuff to make us champions” such as defensive zone coverage and breaking the puck out, he said.
"The goals will come, but we got to stop the other teams from coming through.”
Although the Huskies practised on the evening of Thursday, March 1, the coach said they planned to take a break over the weekend following a long couple of weeks.
They’ll be back on home ice this Saturday, March 10 when they host Eckville in the first game of the division playoffs. The puck drops at 3 p.m. at the Sundre Arena.
The second game of the final series is scheduled for Saturday, March 17 in Eckville, and if required, the third and last game will be played in Sundre on Sunday, March 18.
