Their home ice dates for the first round of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League playoffs have been confirmed.
Now the Comox Valley Glacier Kings just need to confirm who their opponent will be.
The Yetis wrap up the regular season tonight in Saanich against the Braves, and while final league standings could shift depending on how the Victoria Cougars and Peninsula Panthers fare in their final two regular season games, it appears Saanich will be the Icemen鈥檚 opponent in the opening round of post-sseason play.
The Icemen host the opener in the best-of-five series Tuesday, Feb. 22 with puck drop at 7:45 p.m. Game three will be Saturday, Feb. 26 with a 7:30 p.m. start. If necessary, game five will be Tuesday, March 1 at 7:45 p.m. All games are at Comox Valley Sports Centre Arena #1.
In what they are hoping was not a playoff preview, the Yetis lost 6-2 last Friday on home ice to Saanich, with the Braves scoring four unanswered goals in the third period to hand the Icemen their third straight loss.
鈥淩ight from the start to the end of the game we didn鈥檛 live up to our press clippings,鈥� said coach Jim MacLean, adding the only positives were a short-handed and power-play goal. 鈥淲e just didn鈥檛 play well. They were ahead of us 2-0 in the first two minutes of the game.鈥�
With Karver Everson unavailable tonight and Stewart Lee and Jeff Crisp (one of their assistant captains) likely out for the rest of the year with injuries, the Glacier Kings signed Ryan Bradley this week.
鈥淗e played with Peninsula at the beginning of the season and previous to that he played a couple of years in Kerry Park,鈥� MacLean said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a very good player (who) can play both forward and defence. We鈥檙e going to use him at forward at first.鈥�
The six-foot, 180-pound Bradley had 13 points (2g, 11a) through 24 games with Peninsula this season before leaving the team in early January.
MacLean said the key to beating the Braves 鈥� tonight and in the future 鈥� is simple: 鈥淓verybody has to play well and we have to stay out of the penalty box. When the playoffs start it鈥檚 a whole new season and everybody has to step up to the plate.鈥�
sports@comoxvalleyrecord.com
