Chris Clegg
South Peace News
The NPHL Semi-Final between the Falher Pirates and Dawson Creek Canucks is down to a best-of-five.
The Canucks evened the best-of-seven series at one game apiece after a 5-1 win at Falher Feb. 23. The Pirates won the first game of the series 4-3 in overtime at Dawson Creek Feb. 21 on Isaiah Letendre’s goal at 4:53.
The Canucks rebounded nicely from their overtime defeat with a decisive 5-1 win, despite being outshot 35-22. Brandon Rowley and Chase Hendrickson scored first period goals in a game the Canucks never trailed.
The Pirates struck first in the second period to close the gap to 2-1 on Rob Lemay’s first of the playoffs.
However, despite outshooting the Canucks 21-6 in the period, Brett Norman scored with 1:50 left to restore the Canucks’ two-goal lead.
In the third, Norman scored his second goal of the night just before the five-minute mark. He also added a second assist on Braeden Allkins’ power play goal with 7:04 left to make it 5-1.
Canucks’ goaltender Payton Lee stopped 34 of 35 shots to record the win.
The Canucks were one-for-five on the power play while the Pirates were blanked on five chances. Two power plays for each team were abbreviated chances after penalties overlapped.
The Pirates stole home ice advantage, albeit briefly, in the series with the overtime win in Game 1.
Kole Norris scored the only goal of the first period to give the Canucks the lead.
In the second period, Josh Sylvain scored the first of his two goals on the night. Brett Edwards added a power play goal and the Pirates were ahead 2-1.
But Matt Schmermund tied the game making it 2-2.
In the third, the Canucks took the lead on a power play goal from Hendrickson before Sylvain tied the game to send it to overtime. It was the second time the Pirates crawled back from a deficit to win.
The Canucks outshot the Pirates 41-35. Each team was one-for-three on the power play.
The games were played Friday and Sunday nights, a rarity for NPHL playoffs. Between the games, the Manning Comets defeated the Spirit River Rangers 4-3 in overtime to take 1-0 lead in the other NPHL Semi-Final. The two overtime games in the first games of those series marked the first time in the 72-year history of the NPHL that both semi-final Game 1s went to overtime. Six other semi-final Game 1s were decided by one goal each.
The Pirates advanced to the semi-final after defeating the Fox Creek Knights 7-2 Feb. 17 to win the best-of-seven series in five games.
Seven different Pirates sored including Trevor Tokarz, Eric Dentinger, Letendre, Dallas Brochu, Aaron Kuhn, Tyrell Boucher and Brett Edwards.
Ty Mappin and Garry Mindus replied for Fox Creek.
The Pirates quickly led 3-0 and 4-1 after one period. They increased the margin to 6-2 after two periods and cruised to victory.
Edwards, Tokarz and Brochu all scored power play goals as the Pirates clicked on three of six chances. Tyrell Boucher’s goal was short-handed in the first period and proved to be the game-winner.
Both Fox Creek goals were scored on the power play as the Knights clicked on two of five chances.
The Pirates outshot the Knights 51-30.