The Yellow Grass Wheat Kings swept the quarterfinal round against the Carnduff Red Devils, to advance to the semifinals of the Bix Six Hockey League playoffs.
“I am very happy with the guys, especially since the games in the first round of playoffs were a lot tighter than what the final score showed,” said Jim Onstad, head coach for the Yellow Grass Wheat Kings.
In their best-of-five series against Carnduff, the Wheat Kings won 5-2 on home ice on Feb. 9, then claimed a 5-2 victory in Carnduff on Feb. 12, and finished the series with an 8-7 score in double overtime on home ice on Feb. 15.
Onstad noted that the double overtime win might not have been a “coaches game”, but it was a great way to finish it up for the crowd at the Wheat Kings’ home rink. “The momentum was up and down for that entire game. We were up early, but then they came out strong in the second period. We kept the game alive by coming out hard in the third, and then both teams fought until the second overtime, where we scored that game-winning goal.”
Bienfait also swept their quarterfinal round against Oxbow, with a 5-2 victory on Feb. 8, a second 5-2 win on Feb. 12, and then they blanked Oxbow 3-0 on Feb. 17.
The best-of-five semifinal series against Bienfait will start on Friday, Feb. 24, with a road game in Bienfait. Since Bienfait was in first place overall in the Big Six Hockey League during the regular season, they will have the home ice advantage for the semifinal round.
“Bienfait has a very quick team and they know how to play in their own rink, so we will have to be ready to play hard to win a game against their strong offense,” said Onstad.
He noted that Yellow Grass had only lost by one point in three out of the five regular season games where the Wheat Kings and Bienfait had played against each other. The time to rest before their first game against Bienfait is also really important to the Wheat Kings, as their players have time to heal from any bumps and bruises that were taken in their first playoff round.
“The community is really supporting the team, which is just fantastic,” said Onstad. “There are a lot of our players who had commuted from Weyburn to play with Arcola before they folded that team. We also have quite a few local players who came out to play for the Wheat Kings. So lots of local connections.”
Game two will be held in Yellow Grass on Tuesday, Feb. 28 and game three will be back in Bienfait on Thursday, March 2.
If needed, game four will be held in Yellow Grass on Sunday, March 5 and game five will be in Bienfait on Monday, March 6.
In the other semifinal series of the Big Six Hockey League playoffs, the second-place Redvers will face up against the third-place Wawota.
Redvers won three out of four games against Carlyle in their best-of-five quarterfinals. They won 7-1 on Feb. 8, won 3-1 on Feb. 14, lost 3-2 on Feb. 16 and then won 5-4 on Feb. 19.
Wawota swept their semifinal series in three games against Midale. Wawota won 5-1 on Feb. 10, won 8-3 on Feb. 15 and then won 7-3 on Feb. 17.
In the Saskatchewan Hockey Association provincial playoffs, Milestone fell 5-3 to Bethune in the first game of round two of the Senior A provincial round. Redvers lost 6-2 to Wilcox in the first game of round two of the Senior D provincial round.
