Playoff hockey has finally taken center stage at the FAA for the Sherwood Division Champion Terriers. After the Survivor Series settled and the Estevan Bruins qualified for the SJHL Division Semi Final, making Game One on Friday night the start of the Terriers road to the RBC Cup.
In the first period the Terriers trade deadline pick up made GM Don Chessney and Trent Cassan look very smart, scoring the first goal of the playoffs on a nice assist from Dylan Johnson to give the Terriers their first goal and lead of the playoffs. From there they never looked back, getting another goal from Ellis and two from Patrick Martens on their way to a 6-1 Terriers win and the lead in the series.
After the game Ellis was ecstatic to give the Terriers such a boost in his first SJHL Playoff game saying, "It is the SJHL Playoffs every team is battling for the RBC Cup and this is what I came here for so it was a special moment to get the first goal of the playoffs at home and help the team get the win." Coach Cassan also continued the praise Ellis has received for his two way play since coming to the Terriers lauding the forwards ability to play in a variety of roles for the club. "Ellis is an important guy to have on the team as he knows where to be on the ice as you saw with the goal and his ability to take faceoffs and kill penalties as a center makes him a valuable guy to have at this time of year" said Cassan. Dawson MacAuley was not busy in Game One, but did make all the saves required of him as the Terriers outshot the Bruins 38-15.
With Estevan's Spectra Place being one of the loudest and best attended rinks in the SJHL Game Two in Estevan was going to be tough for the Terriers, who were looking to bury the Bruins with a win on road ice. Calder Neufeld opened the scoring for the Bruins fifteen seconds into the game, showing right away that this game was going to be much different from Game One. Kailum Gervais did tie the game up going into the intermission with his second goal of the playoffs, but this game was about to become one way action for the home host Estevan.
Three goals in the second period gave the Bruins a 4-1 lead that they never looked back from despite captain Devon McMullen's third period goal, winning 5-2 behind a two goal, one assist night from Dylan Smith and Curtis Martinu's 25 saves. Martinu was stellar in net for the Bruins after allowing six goals in Game One, outdueling MacAuley in evening the series even with the Terriers outshooting the Bruins for the second straight game 27-21. The win upped the ante for Game Three as the Bruins now had a chance to take control of the series if they could manage to upset the Terriers at the FAA. With the home/away format of the SJHL Playoffs this game was huge as the Terriers would not want to face the prospect of going back to Spectra Place down 2-1 in the series come Game Four, making Game Three a crucial meeting for both teams despite having plenty of games left in this best of seven series.
Curtis Martinu would become the focal point of Game Three early and often, making spectacular saves throughout the game, which entered the second period scoreless behind his 21 saves in the opening 40 minutes.
In the third the Terriers needed to find a hero to get on the scoresheet with the chance of their second home loss of the 2012/13 year becoming more and more likely with every minute getting closer to sudden death overtime.
Game One's two goal scorer Patrick Martens decided to continue his party at the FAA in Game Three, grabbing the opening goal going top shelf over Martinu to give the Terriers the lead. Martens was robbed by Martinu shortly after on another breakaway, but got another chance on the next shift and made no mistake to make it 2-0.
Estevan scored with :57 seconds left in the game, but it was too late as the Terriers made the series 2-1 with Martens getting to have his playoff moment.
"To be honest on the second goal I was going for the rebound" said Martens who also credited his teammates for the two goals saying, "I got a lot of opportunities from some nice passes in the third there and I was lucky enough to convert them and hopefully I can get some more of those opportunities in Game Four on the road."
Coach Cassan pointed out the key to Martens offensive success often is his ability to shoot while moving his feet. "Martens has a quick release and gets the majority of his goes on the rush as he can shoot the puck while moving which is something not a lot of guys can do" said Cassan.
Going into Game Four Thursday night at Spectra place Cassan said the key to their getting a valuable road win will be keeping it simple and avoiding mistakes early on. "Sometimes when you go on the road in this league it is tough to get the energy to win those battles you would win at home and you start to over think and overwork and that is what happened to us in Game One once we allowed that early goal so we will look to kind of tinker a little and compose ourselves on Thursday."
Any hopes of a sweep and a cakewalk for the Terriers in round one are now long gone, this is going to be a series and Game Four in Estevan and Five in Yorkton Saturday won't come easy for the Terriers.
