Osoyoos Coyotes’ forward Colten Rhodes (right) celebrates after scoring in a playoff game two weeks ago against the North Okanagan Kngihts. The Coyotes blew a 2-1 series lead against the Summerland Steam and ended up losing three-straight games for the first time all season as their dream of a championship came to an abrupt end Sunday evening in Summerland. The Steam took game six 6-4 to win the series 4-2 and advance to the league conference finals against the 100 Mile House Wranglers. (Richard McGuire photo)
The Osoyoos Coyotes picked the worst possible time to go through their only three-game losing streak of the season and suddenly their dreams of a championship season came to a crashing halt Sunday night in Summerland.
After dropping a tough 4-3 decision on home ice Saturday night in game five of their best-of-seven Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) division final series against the Summerland Steam, the Coyotes were facing elimination when they travelled to Summerland Sunday evening.
After getting off to a quick 2-0 start, the Coyotes allowed a late first period goal and then fell apart in the second period as the Steam scored four unanswered goals to take a commanding 5-2 lead after 40 minutes.
The Steam extended the lead to 6-2 with an empty net goal.
The Coyotes managed to score two late goals, but it meant nothing as they knew what they hoped would be a long run to the league championship series was coming to an end.
After dropping the first game in the series on home ice, the Coyotes rebounded with two impressive wins, but were never the same team again as they dropped three-consecutive games for the first time all season.
Head coach and general manager Ken Law said he never saw this coming at any time during the regular season or early in the playoffs (the Coyotes swept North Okanagan Knights in the first round of the playoffs).
“This wasn’t the same team in this playoff series against Summerland that played so well during the entire regular season,” said Law. “We just couldn’t protect our own net.
“It’s not like Summerland played unbelievable and were the better team. We just stopped playing defence and I don’t know what happened. Our goalies would make the first stop and our guys couldn’t clear the puck and they would score off rebounds.
“It happened over and over again and I just don’t know what happened. We played so well defensively throughout the entire season and set a new league record for the least amount of goals allowed in the regular season in league history, but when it counted most, we couldn’t get the job done.”
With a young team featuring only seven veterans and more than a dozen rookies, Law said his team found out that playoff hockey is much different that regular season hockey.
“Come playoff time, our attention to detail just wasn’t there,” he said. “I have to put a lot of that on my back because the guys just weren’t ready to compete at the level you need to be at to win in the playoffs.
“We had a very young team with a good core of veterans and I didn’t see any problems at all the entire season, but when we faced some adversity against Summerland, we just fell apart and I can’t explain it.”
The Coyotes had one of the best regular seasons in team history as they lost only nine of 52 games in regulation time.
To lose four games to Summerland including three in four nights, is still hard to fathom, said Law.
“Nobody likes to lose, but to lose the way we did is very tough to swallow,” he said. “The biggest thing is we didn’t compete hard enough in front of our net and Summerland did what they had to do to win and our guys didn’t. It’s very disappointing.”
A total of 18 players are eligible to return next season and Law is confident a large majority of them will want to return to make another run at a league title and go much further than this year’s team did.
“We have 18 guys who can come back, but you never know at this level because a bunch of them will move on to Junior A and others don’t know what they’re going to do,” he said. “I know a lot of them would want to come back to try and get rid of the sour taste of what just happened, but the best laid plans don’t always work out when it comes to hockey.”
Law said he’s going to start recruiting for next year’s team within days as he was finalizing plans to attend provincial midget tournament in B.C., Alberta and the United States over the next month.
The Steam will now face the 100 Mile House Wranglers in the conference final, while the Beaver Valley Nitehawks will face the regular-season champion Kimberley Dynamiters in the other conference final.
The Coyotes finished 20 points ahead of the Steam in the regular season and entered the playoffs on a 14-game unbeaten streak.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
