The Nipawin Hawks are moving on to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League semifinal playoff series after completing a four-game sweep of the Humboldt Broncos with a 4-3 win in Humboldt.
Ending the series as quickly as possible was key for the Hawks, noted Doug Johnson, the team’s head coach, who was pleased to see it happen.
“The longer the series goes, the more chance for injury, the more chance for suspensions. It gives hope to the other team and we don’t want to give the opposition any type of hope whatsoever.”
The Hawks got goals at the March 23 game from Eric Bolden, Daven Smith, Tanner Thompson and Keegan Kjargaard, with two of the goals coming off rebounds and a third bouncing off the end boards.
Johnson notes a focus for the Hawks is going to the net hard in every game, and in this one it worked out very well for them.
“We always want to put pressure on the oppositions D and thought that we did a nice job.”
Johnson pointed to each of the first two goals as perfect examples of what can happen when driving the net, noting the first one was a perfect shot to Broncos goaltender Garrett Mason’s far pad and the second, while not a rebound was a great example of driving the net.
“[Josh] Laferriere’s going hard to the net. He doesn’t score it, it goes right in but just having that person go to the net puts a little bit of doubt in the goalie’s mind and makes them think that they have to be perfect because if there’s any rebound there it’s going to end up in the back of the net.”
Coming down the stretch, the game was tight as the Broncos scored with 7:30 to play to cut the lead to one.
“I thought Humboldt battled very hard and they put us on our heels at the end but I was really happy with the way the guys buckled down after Humboldt made it 4-3 and really held their ground,” said Johnson of the last few minutes.
The Hawks had plenty of chances to put the game out of reach, including four straight power plays early in the third, but they could not capitalize.
In total the Hawks finished the night 1/10 on the power play, but despite the poor percentage, Johnson was pleased with the power play.
“I actually wasn’t too disappointed with the power play just the results weren’t exciting... We didn’t put the puck in the back of the net but we generated offense.”
Johnson noted they had a number of point blank opportunities to score but Mason was equal to the task.
