Gregory shuts door, Vikings draw first blood over Huskies

The Vincent Massey Vikings are now in the driver’s seat.

The Vikings (1-0) took the edge in Game 1 of their best-of-three quarterfinals matchup against the Hamiota/Rivers/Elton/Strathclair Huskies (0-1) following a 2-0 victory in the Westman High School Hockey League playoffs at the Sportsplex on Sunday evening.

Massey forwards Joe Balabanski and Cole Adams tallied unassisted goals in the first two frames, while starting netminder Hunter Gregory stopped all 30 shots to put the Huskies on the ropes heading back to Hamiota for Game 2 on Wednesday.

Vikings head coach Brent Blaine said the tight-checking affair was exactly what he had anticipated.

“It was exactly as advertised,” said Blaine post-game. “They were hard on us all game, and like I said, give them full credit. They were very aggressive and they came at us, but we had our chances. I thought we needed a bit more finish, but we still managed to get the two we needed and that’s all that counts.”

Heading into Sunday, Blaine’s message to his team was to get on the board first to avoid chasing the game and in turn, playing out of their systems. Well, it seems the message got through loud and clear, as Balabanski buried one past Huskies goaltender Nicolas McDuff less than a minute into the game to put Massey on top 1-0.

Ironically, Balabanski played just six games all season, but now he’ll be better know by his teammates as the one who scored the game-winning goal 46 seconds in.

Adams, who played for Massey 2 last year and cracked the top three in team scoring with 19 goals and 33 points this season, gave his club a two-goal cushion in the middle of the second frame after finding himself all alone while shorthanded and roofing a forehand-backhand deke past McDuff. That was the last Grade A chance the Vikings would bury, though, as the Huskies goaltender, who stopped 34 of 36 shots, was a huge reason the game was as close as it was.

“Even though we scored early, which was key, we kept going and our guys had chances, but we just couldn’t find the back of the net,” said Blaine. “In the end, the score doesn’t matter as long as you get the win in a best-of-three series, so I’m happy with the 2-0 win.”

The Vikings will now look to rinse and repeat on Wednesday, when they got out on the road to try and close out their series and potentially get some more rest as they await the winner of the sixth-place Major Pratt Trojans and third-place Neepawa Tigers, who play Game 1 tonight in Neepawa. But they can’t get ahead of themselves. Everyone knows the hardest game to win is the clinching one, so they will need to come out hot just like they did on Sunday.

There’s no doubt the Huskies will have more to give with their backs against the wall in Game 2, but Blaine believes his club will too.

“I would think we’re kind of in the same boat,” he said. “I think we can bring a bit more too, and we can go a little harder, too, but they’re are an aggressive team. I give them full credit. They’re hard-working and they don’t take a shift off and we’ll be playing in their home rink, so it’s elimination game for them, and we get a chance to wrap it, but we got to come out and be prepared from puck drop.”

In other WHSHL quarterfinals action, the Swan Valley Tigers (1), who lost just one game in regulation all season, edged the Roblin/Grandview/Gilbert Plains Raiders in a 6-5 victory. The Raiders led 4-2 five minutes into the second frame, however, the Tigers would go on to score four of the next five with markers from Easten Eggie, Sam Lacasse, Walker Atkinson and Dade Werbicki. Swan will have a chance to close out the series in Roblin tonight.

Over in Dauphin, the Clippers (4) will host the Glenboro/Carberry/Baldur Wildcats (5) tonight for Game 1.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com