Osoyoos Coyotes’ Brett Jewell got a breakaway in the second period of Monday’s playoff hockey game and scored a beautiful shorthanded goal unassisted. Moments earlier, the Coyotes had been playing two men short. The Coyotes won the opening game in their best-of-seven division final series against the Summerland Steam by the score 4-2 with Jewell getting another shorthanded unassisted goal in the third period. Jewell was named star of the game. (Richard McGuire photo)
The Osoyoos Coyotes continued their march towards the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) final series with an impressive victory over the Summerland Steam in the opening game of their best-of-seven second round series Monday night at the Sun Bowl Arena.
Summerland qualified after edging out Kelowna Chiefs 2-1 in a seventh-and-deciding game last weekend in Summerland.
The Coyotes disposed of the Princeton Posse in five games and wrapped up that series with a convincing 6-3 victory at the Sun Bowl Arena last Thursday night.
As KIJHL regular season champions, the Coyotes will enjoy home-ice advantage in each and every playoff series they play.
Game two of the battle between the Coyotes and Steam took place Tuesday night at the Sun Bowl Arena.
The series will switch to Summerland for Game 3 on Thursday night, with game four scheduled for Saturday evening in Summerland.
If a fifth game is necessary, it would be played Sunday afternoon at the Sun Bowl Arena. That game would start at 4:30 p.m. instead of the usual 7:35 p.m. starting time for most Coyotes’ home games.
If a sixth game is necessary, it would be played next Monday evening in Summerland.
If the series comes down to a seventh game, it would be played in Osoyoos next Tuesday evening.
Even though the Coyotes had a record of seven regulation wins and one overtime victory over Summerland this season, head coach and general manager Ken Law expects another tough series against Summerland.
“Princeton played us tough and we’re expecting more of the same against Summerland,” he said. “They’re a more talented team than Princeton and have more players that can hurt you, but they also have some weaknesses we can expose and hopefully we can play our game and come out on top again.”
Despite a physical series against Princeton, Law said there are no serious injuries to report and his team is confident and healthy as they try and win this series to advance to the league conference championships.
“We’ve got a few guys banged up, but nothing that would keep anyone from playing,” he said.
He has rotated goaltenders Brett Soles and Lawrence Langan since Soles arrived after Christmas and that has continued into the playoffs and likely won’t change in this series, said Law.
“Both our goaltenders are playing very well and giving us a chance to win,” he said. “Rotating them has worked so far and they both seem happy with it, so I think we’ll keep going with that.”
The Coyotes have had terrific fan support all season and the crowds have grown in size and loudness as the playoffs progress, which really does make a difference, said Law.
“We get great support year-round in this community and our crowds are getting increasingly louder and more boisterous as we continue our playoff run,” he said. “The players were talking about it after the Princeton series and how much it means to them to have this kind of great support.”
In the series opener Monday, the game was scoreless after 20 minutes.
Co-captain Aaron Azevedo, who tied for the league scoring title in the regular season, scored early in the second period to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead.
After Summerland scored a power play goal two minutes later to tie things up, Brett Jewell scored a beautiful shorthanded breakaway goal to give the Coyotes a lead they would not relinquish.
Jewell scored a second shorthanded breakaway goal early in the third period to extend the lead to 3-1.
Summerland made it interesting with three minutes left as Riley Pettitt scored to narrow the gap to 3-2, but Ryan Roseboom sealed the victory with an empty net goal with just over one minute to play.
In the series-clinching game against Princeton, co-captain Troy Maclise scored a shorthanded marker only three minutes into the game to give the Coyotes a lead they would not give up.
Azevedo made it 2-0 six minutes later.
Princeton scored a late power-play goal in the first period to narrow the gap to 2-1.
After Princeton tied the score with another power play marker early in the third period, the Coyotes took over and scored four unanswered goals to wrap up the game and series.
Luc Gradisar, Bailey Shaver, Maclise and Jewell, with an empty net goal, scored for the Coyotes.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
