The Haliburton County Huskies still have a chance to secure home ice advantage for the opening round of playoffs, but they’ll likely need to beat two of the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s top teams to do so.
Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, the blue and white are preparing for a road tilt with the Collingwood Blues, the second-place team in the West Division, on Feb. 27 before hosting the Stouffville Spirit, second in the East, in Minden Feb. 28.
Having had a full week to prepare for the games, Huskies alternate captain Isaac Larmand said the team will be ready to go come Friday. U E I L S
“We just want to bring energy from this week’s practices and come out flying for the weekend. If we do our thing and focus on what’s got us to this point, there’s no reason we can’t go out and win,” Larmand said. “We’ve shown before that we can beat all the top teams this season.”
This will be the Huskies first and only match-up against a Collingwood team that has lost only four times in their home arena this season. The Huskies are 2-1 against Stouffville, winning 3-2 at home Jan. 3 and splitting games on the road – losing 3-2 Jan. 8 before redeeming themselves 4-1 on Feb. 12.
Larmand says it was nice for the team to have a few days to mentally reset after a tough weekend, where they gave up a 2-0 lead to lose 4-3 in overtime to the Lindsay Muskies Feb. 20 before falling 4-2 to the Markham Royals Feb. 21 in Minden.
The blue and white got off to a great start in what is likely the final ‘Battle of Hwy. 35’ of the season, with forward Chase Del Colombo pouncing on a Muskies misplay 3:52 into the first to pot his 16th goal of the season shorthanded. Defenceman Jack Cook made it 2-0 at 17:55, ripping a shot top shelf from the point on the power play after good work from Brody Coe and Ryan Gosse.
The Huskies took their foot off the gas after a dominant first period display and the Muskies, chasing a first playoff berth since the 2012-13 season, took full advantage – Ajay Rai helping himself to a hat-trick with two goals in the second and one early in the third to swing the game.
Coe tied things up at three late in the third, but the Muskies weren’t to be denied – potting the game-winner two-and-a-half minutes into the extra frame.
Untimely penalties cost the Huskies dearly in their loss to Markham – the ninth-place team chasing Lindsay for the East Division’s final playoff spot.
Ryan Fairbairn got the home side off to a flying start 72 seconds in, scoring from Gosse and Del Colombo, but two Chance Adams goals on the man advantage brought the Royals back into the game. Fairbairn added a second late in the second, from Carson Durnin and Kieran Raynor, but Markham scored twice in the third to seal the victory.
“Neither game went the way we wanted them to. Playing against the eighth and ninth seed in our division… those are games where we need to be better and have the will to win,” Larmand said. “The penalties for sure didn’t help us this weekend… but adversity is not always a bad thing. Learning from it and taking the positives can be a good thing and help us in the future.”
Newmarket awaits
The Huskies know who they’ll be facing in the opening round – a familiar foe in the Newmarket Hurricanes.
The two teams have been neck-and-neck in the standings for much of the year, though the blue and white hold the better head-to-head record, going 3-1 in the regular season.
Larmand said he and his teammates aren’t yet looking beyond this weekend’s games but are aware of the challenge that lies ahead.
“I think everyone has looked at the standings. Newmarket will know their record against us coming into playoffs. People say it might not mean anything, but it’ll be in the back of their mind,” Larmand said.
“Our goal now is to end the season on as big of a high as possible. We want to go into the playoffs with a bit of a hot streak and be a tone-setter for the league. Beating two top teams in Collingwood and Stouffville would be a great way to do that. That can only help to get everyone in the dressing room pumped up for, hopefully, another lengthy post-season run.”
