The Greater Vancouver Canadians are hoping their late season momentum will carry over to the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League playoffs.
The Canadians closed out their schedule by winning 10 of 12 games and will travel to Coquitlam this weekend for a best-of-three quarter-final series against the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs in a match-up of fifth and fourth seeds.
After a tough post-Christmas stretch, the regional rep team turned its fortunes with an impressive two game sweep of the Chiefs in late January. The Canadians went on to post a 22-15-3 record to finish the same spot in the standings as they did a year ago.
Greater Vancouver could be looking at another playoff battle with defending champion Vancouver Northwest Giants should they advance.
"We would love another chance to play the Giants but right now our focus is on trying to beat a good Chiefs team," said Canadians head coach Leland Mack. "We have been playing some good hockey of late, to the potential I thought this group was capable of. Hopefully we will continue it."
The key to the series will be how much the Canadians can contain Chief snipers Matthew Barzal and Colton Kehler. Barazal led the league in scoring with 103 points and was the number one overall pick in last spring's Western Hockey League Bantam Draft.
Kheler had a league best 41 goals.
Canadians will line-up their own top 15-year-old prospect against Barazal. Adam Musil who was selected sixth overall in the draft by Red Deer.
"Matthew was the number one pick in the draft for a reason," said Mack. "They were teammates last season (with Burnaby Winter Club) and Adam did a good job the last time we played them."
Saskatoon Blades' prospect Nathan Alalouf will get the start in net for the Canadians.
