Osoyoos Coyotes’ netminder Brett Soles gets plenty of help from his teammates while forwards with the Princeton Posse try to find the back of the net during playoff action this past Saturday night at the Sun Bowl Arena. After winning the first game in the best-of-seven playoff series Friday night, the Posse stole game two by scoring with two seconds left in regulation time and then scoring the overtime winner early in the extra period. The Coyotes rebounded Monday night in Princeton with a crucial 5-3 victory. Game five will be played Thursday night in Osoyoos. Game four was played in Princeton Tuesday night.
KEITH LACEY
Game five in best-of-seven series will take place Thursday night at Sun Bowl Arena after Posse steal game two
The Princeton Posse will not go down without a fight against the Osoyoos Coyotes and that means there will be hockey at the Sun Bowl Arena Thursday night.
Many pundits expected the Coyotes would sweep the Posse in the first round of their best-of-seven playoff series after finishing the regular season more than 30 points ahead of them in the regular season.
After winning the opening game on home ice last Friday night by a convincing 4-0 score, the Coyotes were taught that playoff hockey is much different than the regular season in game two.
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, the Posse stormed back and stole a game that shocked the more than 300 fans in attendance as they scored with two seconds left in regulation time and then scored 30 seconds into overtime to steal a 4-3 victory and tie the series.
In what proved to be their first difficult test of the season Monday night in Princeton, the Coyotes saw a comfortable 4-1 lead with just over two minutes to play get interesting as the Posse scored a goal with two minutes to play and another with just over a minute to play to close the gap to 4-3.
The Coyotes wrapped things up with a late empty net goal to win 5-3 and regain home-ice advantage.
Game four was played in Princeton Tuesday evening.
Game five will be played at the Sun Bowl Arena Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m.
If a sixth game is necessary, it will be played in Princeton Friday evening. If a seventh-and-deciding game is needed, it would be played Saturday night in Osoyoos.
Coyotes’ head coach and general manager Ken Law said his players have learned a valuable lesson about playoff hockey early in this series.
“It’s our own fault that we lost the game Saturday night and our own fault we let them back in it late on Monday night,” said Law. “We knew this team was going to work hard and wouldn’t roll over and they most certainly haven’t rolled over.”
It’s shocking to lose a playoff game on home ice when the opposition scores with only two seconds left on the clock and then steals a game early in overtime, said Law.
“We’ve had a couple of letdowns and it cost us,” he said. “I think the guys realize now that they have to play hard the entire 60 minutes or this team is going to fight back.”
His team has dominated play throughout the first three games, but Princeton has an excellent goaltender in Stephen Heslop and he’s been outstanding and given his team a chance to win, said Law.
The good news is he has a veteran squad and good leadership and they know they are going to have to finish their scoring chances to eliminate Princeton and move on to the next round, said Law.
In game one, the Coyotes scored four unanswered goals in the second period to break open a scoreless draw after 20 minutes and skated to an easy victory.
Colten Braid opened the scoring with a power play goal early in the middle frame. There wasn’t any more scoring for another 15 minutes, but the Coyotes broke it open with three goals in less than two minutes.
Jackson Glimpel, Rainer Glimpel and Aaron Azevedo scored the goals.
Brett Soles stopped all 21 shots fired his way to record the shutout.
In game two on Saturday, Colin Bell scored the only goal of the first period to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead.
Luc Gradisar scored a power play goal early in the second period to extend the lead to 2-0.
The game turned around when Princeton scored their own power play goal late in the second period.
After Bell scored early in the third period to increase the lead to 3-1, Princeton scored a couple of minutes later to close the gap to a single goal.
Brandon Schaber knocked in a loose puck with only two seconds left to send the game into overtime.
Morton Johnston won the game and shocked the Sun Bowl Arena scoring on the first shot of the overtime period.
The Coyotes fired 59 shots as Heslop.
On Monday night in Princeton, Bailey Shaver scored the only goal of the first period to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead.
Princeton tied things up early in the second period, before Daniel Stone put the Coyotes ahead again late in the middle stanza.
The game appeared to out of reach when Brett Jewell scored with four minutes left to give the Coyotes a 3-1 lead and then scored an empty net goal with just over two minutes to go to make it 4-1.
However, the Posse wouldn’t quit and scored two goals in a minute to close the gap to 4-3.
Tyler Holz sealed the victory with an empty net goal with 17 seconds left to give the Coyotes the 5-3 victory.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
