Lac La Hache Tomahawks goaltender and president Willie Sellars has made a promise.
“We will win game two,” Sellars said following a heartbreaking 6-5 home ice overtime loss to the Quesnel Kangaroos in their first game of the best-of-three, first round Central Interior Hockey League series.
“There’s no expectation for us. We got their attention with that overtime loss on Saturday. We don’t have any pressure on us. If anything, they have pressure.”
The Tomahawks season was a tumultuous one. The team finished the CIHL regular season with zero wins and 16 losses.
“It’s been a long season because we haven’t been icing our guys every weekend,” Sellars said. “But Saturday was a great game. We had a full team, finally, which is pretty encouraging.”
Tomahawks’ forward Robin Gilbert, setup from Gilbert Robbins and Richard Macdonald, put a shot top shelf with four seconds left in Saturday’s game to tie the contest at 5-5 and send it to overtime.
Quesnel’s Riley Marsh then got one past Sellars on a one-timer one minute into overtime to send the series back to Quesnel with the Kangaroos up 1-0 for game two and, if necessary, game three of the series.
“We get out there, we’ve got fresh ice, then that,” Sellars said. “It was deflating.
“But we’re going up there to win game two and then have some fun with game three and see what happens. The boys will have some fun.”
Also scoring for the Tomahawks in the game was Xavier Stump, Donovan Nicholas with two, and Dervy Johny.
Quesnel’s Coltin De Frais, Nick Tomassetti, Justin Fulton, Ryan Hanes and Mike Kalusny found the twine for the Kangaroos.
Sellars, meanwhile, made 46 saves in the contest.
The Williams Lake Stampeders are waiting in the wings to face the winner of the first-round East Division series in a best-of-five series after they finished first in the division and received a first-round bye.
Game one of that series will go on Saturday, Feb. 6, before the series comes back to Williams Lake’s Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex for games two and three on Saturday, Feb. 13 and Sunday, Feb. 14. Puck drops go at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 and at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 14.
