The Lac La Biche Junior B Clippers are through to the league finals after they knocked out the Killam Wheat Kings in a nail-biting game that ended 3-2 on Sunday, March 10.
Both teams returned to the Bold Center from their week games in Killam — where the Clippers won both — with scores of 5-2 on Wednesday and 4-2 on Friday. With consecutive wins, the Junior B's only needed one more to make it through to the finals . Sunday's final game of the series was a battle.
Even though Killam had a good start with Lac La Biche being a goal behind at the end of the second period. The third period proved to be a good one for Lac La Biche when the young Clippers really picked up their game and scored two consecutive goals in the last 10 minutes of the game.
The last goal of the game was scored with only 26 seconds remaining on the clock, cementing the Lac La BIhce victory, which got the home crowd up from their seats.
Clippers' head coach Stan Houle was very happy with his team's performance and back to back wins, and mentioned how they had a great comeback in the dying minutes of the game.
"The boys played really hard that last 10 minutes.... We are off to finals and we are facing Wainwright again. They are in the finals already... The boys are motivated and now we will be ready," Houle said.
Between the pipes
One of the factors for the Clippers' recent success was because of their goaltender being in tremendous form, says the head coach.
"Our goalie is hot right now, he has been hot all playoffs. With good goaltending anything can happen," Houle said.
The Clippers are playing with a full bench against Wainwright in the finals despite some minor injuries. Clippers number 10, Brody Rosychuk was out for the last game due to s suspension but he is also returning to the team for their final series.
"We got some injuries tonight but hopefully we will be ready to go. The boys have got some unfinished business there... We are going underdogs. Wainwright has been champions for a few years now. It's going to be a battle though... We will be ready," said Houle.
Waiting on game schedule
The schedule for the finals haven't been confirmed yet, but the first game is scheduled around this weekend starting with away games in Wainwright. Check the POST's facebook page and website at www.laclabichepost.com for updates.
