Inside the CHL playoffs
The Calgary Hitmen may have been the top team in the Western Hockey League during the regular season, but they are quickly finding out that it doesn’t mean a thing once the post-season starts.
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The Hitmen are facing the eighth-seeded Moose Jaw Warriors in the opening round of the playoffs and despite finishing 29 points behind the Hitmen in the regular season, the Warriors have a 3-2 lead in the series.
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Moose Jaw jumped out to a quick lead with 4-2 and 4-1 wins in the first two games of the series in Calgary. The Hitmen stormed back with a 7-3 win in Game 3 in Moose Jaw but after a 4-3 win by the Warriors in Game 4, the Hitmen are one game away from a quick end to their season.
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“All we can do is prepare for the next one and hope to put some pressure on them,” Hitmen coach Mike Williamson told the Calgary Herald. “If we stick with it for the entire game, we’ll have a chance to win it.”
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The Warriors have jumped out to first period leads in all three wins.
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“We came at them hard off the bat and we eliminated our turnovers,” Warriors’ captain Jason Bast told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald. Bast has six goals and seven points in the series.
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The Drummondville Voltigeurs have picked up in the playoffs right where they left off in the regular season.
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The Volts won 16 straight games to close out the regular season and swept the Lewiston MAINEiacs 4-0 in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs. Drummondville is looking for their second straight QMJHL title.
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When the Kitchener Rangers traded veteran netminder Mavric Parks to the Barrie Colts at the trade deadline in January, GM/coach Steve Spott was giving rookie Brandon Maxwell a huge vote of confidence.
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Parks had the best goals against average in the OHL but Spott knew that Maxwell was going to be the guy to carry his young squad in the coming years and wanted to test the Cambridge native.
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It’s safe to say that Maxwell has made the grade.
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In the first three games of the Rangers’ opening round playoff series against the Saginaw Spirit, Maxwell allowed just five goals and leads the OHL playoffs with a 1.67 GAA.
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“He was lights-out for us,” defenceman John Moore told the Kitchener Record after the Rangers squeaked out a 2-1 win over Saginaw in Game 3 on Monday. “He was definitely the difference tonight.”
Photo courtesy of Mark Rogers