Whether the Coquitlam Express are to make any noise in the BC Hockey League playoffs will depend largely on which team shows uptonight for game three against the Penticton Vees, and game four Wednesday (both games are at 7 p.m. at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex).
Would the wild card underdogs be the feisty battlers who lost last Friday’s series’ opener to the regular season champions by a narrow 2-1 score or would they fall meekly as they did in Saturday’s game two, which they lost 9-2?
In a sense, those first two games of the best-of-seven series were a microcosm of the Express’ final weeks of the season when the team showed it could compete hard against some of the league’s top teams like the Vernon Vipers and Surrey Eagles, but would then struggle the very next game. And, as in the regular season, the former often hinged on the strength of the team’s goaltending.
Friday, Express keeper Brock Hamm was outstanding. He stopped 37 of the 39 shots he faced in his very first playoff game of his junior career, even though he played the better part of three seasons with the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League.
After Penticton’s Johnny Tychonick opened the scoring when the game was less than five minutes old, Hamm found his groove, stopping 15 of the 16 shots he faced in the second period, and another 14 in the third.
The Express evened the score less than a minute into the second period on a goal by Christian Sanda when Jack Barnes took advantage of a defensive lapse and beat Hamm on a set up from Jack Barnes.
Coquitlam had a golden opportunity to draw even midway through the third period when Penticton’s James Miller was assessed a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for hitting Josh Wildauer of the Express from behind. But Devin Mussio let his emotions get the better of him and was handed a two-minute penalty for roughing that diminished his team’s man advantage.
In Sunday’s second game in Penticton, the Express trailed 2-1 after the first period but their hosts took over in the middle frame with four unanswered goals. It was 8-1 in the third when Hamm was finally pulled, having stopped only 19 of the 27 shots he faced.
Jack Lippis and Eric Linell scored Coquitlam’s goals.
