What would the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League playoffs be without the Greater Vancouver Canadians squaring off against the Vancouver Northwest Giants?
For the fourth consecutive season the teams will meet in the playoffs, this time in a best-ofthree semi-final starting tonight at the Burnaby Winter Club.
This year's meeting comes as a mild surprise after the fifth place Canadians travelled to Kelowna last weekend and swept the fourth Okanagan Rockets in a quarterfinal series to earn a shot at the regular season champion and wellrested Giants.
Adding intrigue to the match-up is the Canadians being the only team in the league to win the season series against the Giants (2-1-1).
Last year's semi-final match-up went the distance with the Giants winning the deciding game 4-3 and going on to win the Western Canadian championship. The result left Greater Vancouver still in search of their first playoff series win against its biggest rival.
"I remember telling the boys after the series we are going to meet them again and beat them," said Canadians head coach Leland Mack. "I reminded them of that the other day at practice. Why can't this be the year it finally happens?"
Despite the regular season success, the Canadians will have their work cut of for them against an opponent that rolled to a 29-5-6 record and surrendered just 66 goals in 40 regular season games.
They probably have four of the top seven defenceman in the league and outstanding goaltending as well," said Mack.
The Canadians also showed they are capable of playing tight defensive hockey, especially when goaltender Chris Tai is on his game. The 17-year-old from North Delta was superb against the Rockets, making 60 saves in a 3-2 double overtime game one win. He then turned aside 33 shots in a 3-0 game two victory. The series clincher was arguably the Canadians' most complete game of the season.
"I give a lot of credit to the Canadians," said Rockets General Manager David Michaud. "It's no easy task to come on the road and win two games in this building.
Without question they deserved the win. I thought they executed their game plan to a tee and were able to dictate things a little more than I would have like today, we just didn't have much in the way of an answer for them this weekend."
Former Seafair standout and Portland Winterhawks prospect Tyler Sandhu paced the Canadians attack with a three point weekend, including two goals in game one.
Andrew Klukas netted the overtime winner.
