The Nipawin Hawks saw their season come to a close with a 3-0 loss in Game 7 of their best of seven Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League semifinal playoff series against the Flin Flon Bombers.
The game got off to a terrible start for the Hawks as the Bombers grabbed the lead just 4:20 into the first period and never looked back, scoring their second of the game in the second period and the third and final goal into an empty net with 1:04 to play.
Despite the loss, Doug Johnson, the head coach, was pleased with his team’s effort.
“Unfortunately we made two mistakes that ended up in the back of our net and they were pretty large mistakes too, which is just disappointing, but we can’t do anything about that now and we just have to make sure that we take the positives out of it and don’t let this happen in the future.”
The series turned after the first period in Game 4 as Bombers’ starting goaltender Zac Robidoux was replaced by Brenden Newton, who came on and allowed just two goals in the final 11 periods of the series, including a 36 save shutout in Game 7.
Johnson was quick to credit Newton with playing well down the stretch but said he felt his players did not adjust to the change in goal, noting Robidoux and Newton are very different goalies.
“We got rushed with our shots, we didn’t have the composure we’d had early on, maybe lost some confidence and just kind of hit a cold spell and obviously it came at the wrong time.”
The loss marked the third consecutive season the Hawks fell one series short of the league championship, after losing to the Melfort Mustangs the two years prior.
It was an especially tough pill to swallow for the Hawks as they blew a 3-1 series lead, and were just one game away from the league final.
“Making it to the semifinals and not get any farther definitely hurts, especially for guys like [Keegan] Kjargaard, [Eric] Bolden, [Nicholas] Riemer, and [Carter] Doerksen that have been through all three of those semifinal losses,” said Johnson.
“It’s something you want to overcome, it’s something you wish the players could experience playing in a final but for whatever reason it just wasn’t to be this year.”
The Hawks now turn their attention to next season, which kicks off with the Spring Camp April 21-23.
