Wolverines, Oil Capitals sweep first round series’

One series went as anticipated and another not so much as the Virden Oil Capitals and Waywayseecappo Wolverines both took out their brooms after sweeping their respective Manitoba Junior Hockey League best-of-seven divisional semifinal matchups on Thursday evening.

HISTORY IN WAYWAY

Noah Oughton scored his first goal of the post-season eight minutes and 30 seconds into the first frame and Dylan Duzan added another in the second period, before Cole Hunter put the nail in the coffin after burying an empty netter to secure the Wolverines a 3-1 victory and clinch a berth into the second round for the first time in franchise history at Waywayseecappo Arena Complex late Thursday.

Rylan Gage scored the lone goal for Dauphin 41 seconds left in the contest to put a drop in the ocean and spoil the shutout for goaltender Jase Wareham, who turned aside 38 shots to earn all four of Wayway’s wins. Hunter Bauer and Bryson Yaschyshyn combined for 22 stops in Dauphin’s defeat.

“It just feels surreal,” said Landyn Cochrane, the second-year bench boss of the Wolverines. “We didn’t predict a sweep, but we predicted a playoff win for the wolverines and that’s what we got.

“Taking over two years ago and just kind of limping into the playoffs last year and getting that first playoff win to now just sweeping the Dauphin Kings and seeing our fans just showing up for Game 2 and Game 4 and pushing up to a 1,000 people all chanting, it was just truly a unbelievable playoff atmosphere.

“I let the boys know along the journey that we’re looking to make history this year and this happens to be of one of our steps so now we’re getting ready for round two.”

Wayway entered this first-round tilt as the lower seed finishing behind Dauphin by five points with a 29-24-5 record. That would have been already enough motivation to get the job done against the favourite, however, Cochrane’s squad was also hungry for revenge after losing in five games to the Kings around this time last year.

The Wolverines kept all of their games fairly tight last post-season and just fell short due to execution and a lack of experience, but that wasn’t an issue this time.

From Wareham between the pipes to the six-man defence corps and all four lines up front, Wayway played like it was ready to seize the moment, hitting everything it saw, blocking everything headed toward its net and capitalizing on just about every prime scoring chance it had.

“We just wanted it from top to bottom. They gave their all, and that’s just an onus to the guys here on how much they really wanted it,” Cochrane said. “We had a lot of returning guys that got beat by Dauphin in five, so I think maybe we just had a little bit more energy coming from our room there and just knowing that, ‘Hey, we’re the lower seed,’ but we’re only separated by a few points and know we can play with them.

“I’ve never been in the playoffs as a coach so last year I learned a lot. It was a sour taste having your season ended in five games so all year it was our ultimate goal to get back to the playoffs and it happened to be against the Dauphin Kings.”

While the Wolverines ultimately proved to be the better team, there’s no denying it was a razor thin margin.

Wayway took Game 1 on the road with a 4-3 overtime victory thanks to Hunter’s solo effort to juke past the last defender and slide one past Bauer six minutes into the period. It was a 60-minute effort in Game 2, which propelled them to a 4-1 win in their home barn, but then again in Game 3, it came away unscathed in Dauphin after prevailing 3-2 with Jean Baptiste’s Sebastien Hicks lighting the lamp early into double overtime.

Cochrane said while the outcome of the series didn’t feel like a sweep, he was confident his club would succeed given how they played against Dauphin in their meetings after Christmas, when they won two and then dropped one in overtime.

Hicks and Rivers’ Ben Roulette both led the Wolverines in scoring through the four games, but the first round MVP was no doubt Wareham, who tallied a 1.63 goals against average and .951 save percentage.

His play didn’t surprise Cochrane in the slightest.

“As soon as we announced our game one starter, you could just see the smile on Jase Wareham’s face and I think that’s the only smile I saw him have for the last 14 days or so. He was just a gamer,” he said. “He’s ultra competitive, he makes hard saves, he makes the easy saves.

“He’s just a guy that’s been with the organization for six years since he was a 14 year old kid, so he’s a true Wolverine through and through, and I’m just so happy to see him lead us to make history here.”

The Wolverines are set to play the league-leading Niverville Nighthawks in Round 2. Niverville had 40 more points than Wayway during the regular season, so it will no doubt be slated as the underdog once more, but Cochrane will certainly have his team prepared and ready to put its best foot forward.

DAVID VS. GOLIATH

Forward Bryce Bryant notched a pair of goals, while Colten Worthington, Dysen Drake, Austin Osiowy, Carson Wright, and Bryan Laing all added singles to lead the Virden Oil Capitals to a 7-2 victory and series sweep of the Neepawa Titans at the Yellowhead Centre late Thursday.

Kyle Weisgarber and Logan Paquette found twine for the Titans, who were outscored 23-6 and simply outclassed in this head-to-head.

“We are so difficult to play against because our depth,” said Oil Capitals captain Ty Plaisier. “I mean if you look at our team from back to front, we got Braxton Burdeny as our starter who’s unreal. We have Mickey Gross as well, who’s also really good and you look at our D, we got six D that can rotate lines and play against anyone. Then when you look at the forwards, I mean, you got four lines that can score, four lines that you’re gonna have a tough time defending.

“At the end of the day, I just think in terms of a playoff series, we just have so much depth compared to other teams.”

Virden came out of the gate guns a-blazing in an attempt to make up for all the post-season time it missed out on last year after failing to lock down a top-four spot in the West Division, and it sure did.

Plaisier and his squad downed Neepawa in a dominant 6-0 win at home, and then earned themselves a solid road victory in Game 2 with a 4-1 victory, before putting up another six on the board in Game 3 following a 6-3 triumph.

The Oil Capitals came into the post-season fold on a five-game heater and having won five of six against the Titans to finish with a 39-14-5 record for top spot in the West Division. Their depth shined through all season-long and in this series too as they just wore down their opponents until they shattered.

“Neepawa’s got a good team, they got good players, but I just think our team at the end of the day had 20 guys pulled in one direction and if we can keep playing that way where everyone’s contributing and everyone’s pulling the rope the same way then I think we’ll figure it out,” Plaisier said. “We believed that we were a deeper team, and as long as everyone was doing their job and playing their role, we knew we had a good chance to take them down, so I think it was just about sticking to Oil Caps hockey.”

The 20-year-old hometown product was a big factor in his team’s success, as he helped shut down the Titans’ best offensive threats, while also hitting the back of the net once and racking up five points. His impact on the game should be no surprise at this point, though, given the heavy, gritty brand of hockey he plays which is clearly built for playoff hockey.

He knows his role and he’s good at it.

“I feel like playoff hockey with a higher intensity and more battles and more physicality kind of leans into my game a bit, and I feel like it leans into our team’s game a lot more because we play pretty physical,” he said. “The playoffs are just way more intense, there’s more pressure which I like and we like that there’s more fans at the games, so goals matter more, blocked shots matter more, passes matter more and everything matters more. It’s just four times as fun as regular season, it just doesn’t even compare. It’s a great time.”

Plaisier admitted he and his team are embracing the pressure that’s been felt as being the top finisher in their respective conference and it will only continue to motivate them as they continue their run in the second round.

The other homegrown talent Bryant currently leads the league in post-season scoring with three goals and eight points, while Drake is right behind with four goals and seven points. Marshal Light and Worthington also have five points each.

The Oil Capitals are still waiting to see who their next opponent will be, as the Steinbach Pistons and Portage Terriers first-round clash is ongoing. The Pistons currently lead the series 2-1, but the two played Game 4 on Friday in a contest that ended after deadline.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com