The Smithers Hoskins Ford Bantam Storm are off to their zone finals after defeating Kitimat in two straight games at the Civic Centre this past weekend.
Game one on Saturday morning was an up-tempo, penalty and goal-filled affair.
The Storm entered the third period down by two goals, but came back to tie it and then take a two goal led for a 10-8 win.
“It was a haywire game,” head coach Don Pederson said.
“We didn’t play sound defence, it was really scrambly and we just couldn’t get into a rhythm with all the penalties.”
The Storm rounded into form for game two of the best-of-three.
They built up a 2-0 lead heading into the third period, before exploding for three more goals to win by five.
“Game two was a lot better,” Pederson said.
“We played better team defence, we weren’t caught out of position very often and we rolled our lines.
“I thought we did a good job of rebounding from the first game, it was the type of game that you don’t get a lot of satisfaction by winning.”
Now, they’ll move on to face Terrace in the final, with the winner moving on to tier three provincials in mid-March.
Terrace will provide some stiff competition for the Storm.
They finished first in the regular season, beating the Storm in four of their five meetings.
Fortunately, because of ice rink scheduling conflicts in Terrace, the Storm will get to host the best-of-three series over the first weekend in March.
“We are going to have to come with our A-game,” Pederson said.
“Hope that all our players pull together, that we get some sound goaltending and we play strong team defence.
“Everyone is going to have to play to the best of their ability.”
Of note: The peewees came close to making their zone finals over the weekend, but fell just short after losing 5-3 to Vanderhoof in the deciding game.
Vanderhoof moves on to play Terrace in the zone finals.
