It took one game longer than they would have liked, but the Chilliwack Chiefs have punched their ticket to the BCHL’s Fred Page Cup final.
The Chiefs blew a two-goal lead Friday night with a chance to punt Victoria from the playoffs, falling 3-2 in overtime at Prospera Centre. Chilliwack paid the price with the loooong road trip to the B.C. capital for Saturday night’s game six but they finally put the Grizzlies away.
Jake Smith had two goals in a 3-2 win that kept the Chiefs a perfect 8-0 on the road in these playoffs and sends them to the final for a second straight year.
They’ll face either the Penticton Vees or Vernon Vipers in a series that starts Friday night in Chilliwack.
The teams traded goals 26 seconds apart in the first period, skating to a 1-1 draw through 20 minutes.
Victoria’s Marty Westhaver opened the scoring 2:24 in, taking advantage of a rare error by Chiefs netminder Mark Sinclair. The goalie stopped a Drayson Pears shot, but instead of directing the rebound to the corner he kicked it straight to Westhaver in the left faceoff circle. Westhaver roofed it for his first of the playoffs.
But Tommy Lee silenced the crowd on the very next shift, flying down the left wing and rifling a low shot under the trapper of Grizz goalie Tony Rehm.
Chilliwack dominated the second period but Jake Smith was the only Chief who could slip a puck past Rehm. With Olivier Arseneau chugging to the net on an odd-man rush, Smith took a drop pass from Will Calverley and lazered the puck over Rehm’s glove at 8:21, sending his team to the final frame with a one-goal lead.
Chilliwack had 27 shots on Rehm through 40 minutes, two more than they collected in 63 minutes and 29 seconds Friday night.
Smith sniped an insurance marker just 98 seconds into period three, pouncing on a turnover in front of the Victoria net and popping his fifth of the playoffs past Rehm.
With that the Chiefs found themselves in the exact same position they were in when they eventually lost game four, protecting a two-goal lead against a desperate team. Once again Chilliwack sat back in a defensive shell and this time it worked.
The Chiefs were able to clear the zone far more efficiently and Sinclair came through with a couple big-time saves.
His largest came on Jamie Rome. The Victoria winger took a saucer pass from Cole Pickup and cut across the goal-mouth. Sinclair showed his flexibility, stretching post to post to make a massive pad save. He made another huge stop on Jake Stevens minutes later.
Rehm was called to the bench with two minutes to go and Chilliwack captain Jordan Kawaguchi hit the post on an empty net attempt.
With 43.6 seconds to go, Kawaguchi lost a defensive zone draw to Pickup who beat Sinclair with a shot through traffic, but Kohen Olischefski was able to win the next defensive zone faceoff with 16.6 seconds left and his Chiefs killed the clock.
