If there’s any justice in the hockey world, the Osoyoos Coyotes are going to catch some breaks as they try once again to turn an outstanding regular season into playoff glory.
The “hockey gods” were not kind to the Coyotes last season as an incredible season and fantastic playoff run came to a screeching halt in the conference final series against the Chase Heat.
After sweeping their first two playoff opponents and looking incredibly impressive in doing so, the Coyotes also captured the first two games in the best-of-five conference final series against Chase.
The Coyotes were less than three seconds away from winning game three in Chase, but the Heat tied things up and won in overtime.
Incredibly, less than 24 hours later, the Coyotes were less than one second away from winning the series after scoring in the final minute of regulation time when Chase miraculously tied game four and again won in overtime.
After two heartbreaking losses, the Coyotes ran out of steam in game five and lost game five – and the series – on home ice.
Head coach and general manager Ken Law and his players have once again turned in another outstanding regular season to capture the regular season division title for the sixth time in the past seven years.
The Coyotes will be prohibitive favourites when they face off against a scrappy Princeton Posse squad in a best-of-seven opening round series that kicks off with games 1 and 2 at the Sun Bowl Arena on Friday and Saturday night, respectively.
Should the Coyotes, as expected, manage to defeat Princeton, they will face a very stiff challenge in the second round as they will face the winner of what promises to be a barnburner of a series between the Kelowna Chiefs and Summerland Steam.
The Steam chased the Coyotes for first place in the division all season, but faded down the stretch, which allowed Kelowna to grab second place and home-ice advantage in their series.
The Coyotes obviously have another exceptionally talented team that can compete with any team in the league in a playoff series.
However, this is a franchise that has been snake bit on more than one occasion over the past five years when it comes to playoff success.
The reality is playoff hockey means the truly great teams have to dig deep and play their best hockey of the season and there’s no reason to believe the 2017-18 version of the Coyotes isn’t capable of going on another extended playoff run.
They are going to have to beat some very good teams to reach their goal of returning to the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League championship series.
A large contingent of loyal and loud Coyotes’ fans are going to be cheering them on every step of the way. There aren’t any fans in the KIJHL who deserve a championship more than here in Osoyoos.
Here’s hoping last year’s horrendous luck is a distant memory and the Coyotes find that extra gear needed over the next six or seven weeks to make a run at another league title.
