The Virden Oil Kings and Miniota-Elkhorn C-Hawks brought out the brooms last week.
Both squads swept playoff series in their respective senior leagues. The top-seeded C-Hawks flew past No. 4 Waywayseecappo, 2-0, to advance to the North Central Hockey League finals. Miniota-Elkhorn will play Swan Valley for the league title. Meanwhile, in the Tigers Hills Hockey League, the Oil Kings, the THHL West’s third seed, dropped the No. 6 in the West Melita Bisons, 2-0, to make it to the West semifinals.
Oil Kings
In the West semis, the Oil Kings (10-8-0-0 in the regular season) take on the division’s second seeded Killarney Shamrocks (12-4-2-0).
“We will just have to do the little things right,” Virden coach Tyler Campbell said. “We play a similar style of hockey. They are a really good hockey club, so we will have to minimize mistakes. It's playoff hockey though - the best time of the year.”
The Oil Kings downed the Bisons (5-13-0-0), 5-4, and 6-3. In the opening game of the series, Virden fought back several times at home to earn the victory. Melita held such leads as 2-0 in the first, 3-1 in the second, and 4-3 in the third. Keifer Johnston tied the game at 4-4 and Cam Whyte delivered the game winner. Riley Lamb had 26 saves for Virden.
“I would say our leadership group came up huge in the third period of game one,” Campbell said. “They put the team on their backs and just made it happen. Lots of key guys playing through injuries sparked guys to make that extra effort to get the job done at home.”
On the road on Feb. 18, Virden led early on but Melita came back to tie the contest twice in the second. Eric Lemoine gave Virden the lead for good in the second and Virden added two more goals. Lamb made 27 saves.
“Melita is a tough arena to play in and we defiantly could have got sucked into playing the way they wanted us to,” Campbell said. “We stuck to our game and got the job done. Obviously, having Lamber in net is always a good feeling. He played great the first series.”
C-Hawks
While top-seeded Miniota-Elkhorn (12-0-0 in the regular season) was sweeping its series, the Swan Valley Axeman was doing the same in theirs as the No. 3 seed upset the No. 2-seeded Russell Rams, 2-0. Log onto http://www.northcentralhockeyleague.ca/ for the NCHL finals schedule.
In Miniota on Feb. 18, the C-Hawks took an 8-1 first period lead and kept rolling for an 18-1 victory. Miniota-Elkhorn goalie Cory Gardham earned the win. Taylor Sanheim and Bradley Bowles each scored four goals. Jason Bowles led the way with eight points, including a hat trick. Eight Miniota-Elkhorn players lit the lamp.
The next night, Miniota-Elkhorn closed out the series in Rossburn, 15-1. Again, the C-Hawks took an 8-1 first period lead. Sanheim scored four times and had a team-high seven points. Ian Oliver earned the win in net. Seven C-Hawks found the back of the net.
