The 2018 Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League final has now become a best-of-three affair.
After the Meota Combines opened up proceedings with a 2-1 win in Hafford Friday night, the Hawks regained home ice advantage Sunday evening at the Civic Centre as they picked up a 4-3 victory over the Combines to even up the best-of-five affair at a game apiece.
“It’s been two good tight checking games so far between the top two teams in the league all year,” Combines forward Blake Tatchell said.
“With it being a best-of-three now, I don’t expect anything to really change for either side with how close each game has been.”
The Hawks held a 1-0 lead in Friday’s opener thanks to a goal by Kyle Rivett, but Riley Albert and Levin Floen both scored in the final frame to give the visiting Combines the win.
“Hafford’s a strong defensively minded team and they do a good job of keeping teams to the outside,” Tatchell said.
“We got some traffic going in front of the net after a slow start and that made the difference Friday. We had another slow start Sunday but had a good push back in the third period, so I think going forward that a strong start to the game will make a huge difference.”
Kobe Kindrachuk was a dominant force for the Hawks in Sunday’s rematch as he scored three goals and also had an assist on a first period marker by defenceman Brooks Fleury.
“It all started with our play in the defensive zone,” Kindrachuk said. “Our blueliners made a ton of great outlet passes and that allowed our forwards to have a ton of time to get into their end of the ice.
“After we gave up the lead Friday, we made sure to keep up our level of play for the whole game tonight and we never let Meota get back into it.”
Khisis Derocher, Michael Pylypow and Tatchell all scored for the Combines in the loss.
With warmer temperatures in the forecast, the third game in the series has been moved from Hafford and will now take place at the Battleford Arena Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.
The fourth game of the league final will be held at the Civic Centre at 5 p.m. Sunday.
As of press time, the date, time and location of the potential fifth and final contest has yet to be finalized.
Meanwhile, the Hawks will be heading on the road Friday for the second game in their provincial Senior C semifinal series with the Drake Canucks after they lost the series opener 5-2 Thursday in Hafford.
If needed, a third game is currently slated to take place in Hafford Saturday night.
Elsewhere, the Edam Three Stars opened up their best-of-three Senior D semifinal affair against the Debden Jets with an 8-2 win Saturday in Turtleford.
They can wrap up that series Saturday night in Debden.
