CANORA - The U15 Highway 9 Predators with players from Canora, Norquay, Preeceville, Sturgis, Kamsack and Buchanan, have qualified for the A Banner final series.
The Preds did it the hard way, but they defeated Moosomin in Game 3 of their semifinal series, culminating with an 11-6 win in Kamsack on March 14. Moosomin won Game 1 in Canora on March 6, before the Preds bounced back with an 11-5 victory in Moosomin in Game 2, to force the third and deciding game.
“It feels very good to be moving on to the A series final” said Preds Coach Terry Demchuk, “which is a first for this group of players, many of whom played for the lower-seed banners previously. At the commencement of the season, we realized we had a good group but many had never played together on the same team or even perhaps the same style of game and we knew we had to grow together.”
Game 1 in Canora was tight throughout, with the Rangers coming away with the one-goal victory. Moosomin was the only team the Preds had not beaten during the regular season, so they knew they were in for a challenge.
“Moosomin played an extremely high risk, high pressure style which gave us problems early on,” said Demchuk. “The first game of the series was close with them getting a very late goal to get the win, but I think we felt that the changes we were making would work and if the execution was high we would be OK.”
Carter Moekerk of Preeceville led the offense with two goals for the Preds in Game 1. Gavin Erickson of Preeceville scored once and set up two more. The other goal came off the stick of Shiloh Leson of Canora.
In Game 2 in Moosomin, the Preds demonstrated that they had learned some important lessons from the first game.
“It showed that if our team executes we can do well,” said Demchuk. “With hard fore-checking and better play in our own end, after two periods we were up 9-3 and a couple of late goals left the game final score at 11-5.”
Shiloh Leson of Canora, Zarin Godhe of Buchanan and Gavin Erickson of Preeceville led the way with two goals and an assist each. Seth Symak of Kamsack and Nate Korpusik of Norquay also sniped a pair of goals each. The other goal scorer was Levi Coleman of Sturgis. Kasen Heshka of Canora and Carter Moekerk of Preeceville were playmaking leaders, each with a pair of assists.
Demchuk said the team had plenty of confidence heading into the all-important Game 3 in Kamsack, even though they were missing an important player due to suspension for a checking from behind penalty late in Game 2.
“We started the final game of the series fast with an early three-goal lead,” he said, “but bad defensive play coupled with a blitzkrieg in our end led to them tying it up, only for us to get a go-ahead goal with 30 seconds left in the first period.
“Pretty good all-around play in the second allowed us to score three while giving up none and then we scored four more in the third. They responded with three goals with less than 8 minutes left, giving us the 11-6 win.”
Adapting to the opposition helped the Preds make the comeback and win the series, according to Demchuk
“I think our team changed our base system to more of a quick-break mentality with a lot more shots on goal as we felt we had the advantage in net. We had to adapt to the intense, desperate fore-checking Moosomin applied and find a way to make them pay for sending their defensemen in as fourth and at times even a fifth forward.”
Strong goalie play by Emmett Lukey of Norquay was an important factor in the victory for the Preds.
Demchuk said the Preds will face a stiff challenge in the final series against a talented Langenburg team.
“I think the next round will be very fast and take penalty discipline to win by either squad. We played two games against Langenburg this season and we won both games; both very close, very fast games. I think it’s never bad when it works out that the team that finished first (Langenburg) and the second placed team (Predators) meet up in the final. Langenburg is very good and never lost a game all season except for the two to our squad, so we know they won’t be underestimating us and we fully expect to see the best version of that team.”
The Langenburg series gets underway with Game 1 in Canora on Monday, March 24.
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