After a few days of waiting, the Airdrie Techmation Thunder junior B hockey team found out on Sunday who they'll be playing in the Heritage Junior Hockey League's (HJHL) north division finals – the Sylvan Lake Wranglers.
The Wranglers booked their berth in the division finals after beating the Rocky Rams four games to two in their best-of-seven series. As a result, the Wranglers and the Thunder – who overcame the Mountainview Colts in six games in the other north semi-final – will duke it out to determine which squad will progress to the HJHL finals.
Sylvan Lake and Airdrie finished first and second, respectively, in the north division this season. In terms of their regular-season games against each other, the Wranglers held the upper hand, beating the Thunder in four of five games, outscoring them 18-12.
However, Thunder head coach Randy Buckle noted all of those games were close, with most ending by a one- or two-goal difference. One ended in a shootout defeat for Airdrie.
“We competed with them. Most of the games were one-goal games, really tight games, all year long, so I expect it to be another very tight series,” he said.
“We have to do a lot of what we did in our series with Mountainview – attack the goaltender with lots of shots and look for rebounds.”
According to Buckle, the Wranglers' strength is in the team's speed, as well as their defence and goaltending. He said the Thunder's players will have to be at the top of their game, as they were against the Mountainview Colts, to come out on top.
“I thought our two goaltenders played exceptionally well in that series,” Buckle said. “We’ve had good goaltending all year. All in all, us beating the Colts was [about] depth. We got healthier as the series went on and they ended up getting more injuries as the series went on, and that’s when we took over.”
The first game of the best-of-seven series will be held this Wednesday in Sylvan Lake. Game two will be this Friday night at the Ron Ebbesen Arena, with puck-drop slated for 8 p.m.
Having rested over the weekend, Buckle said the Thunder players are itching to get going.
“We haven’t been on the ice since last Wednesday and we’re excited to get going again,” he said on Monday.
For a full schedule of the playoff series, visit Heritagejunior.com.
