The St. Paul Canadiens didn’t have the most successful weekend, but the team got the three points it needed to take third place in the league, and will now face the Cold Lake ICE in the first round of the NEAJBHL playoffs.
The Habs needed at least three points to pass Frog Lake for third place in the standings and have a more favourable matchup in the opening round.
The Canadiens saw their seven-game winning streak end on Friday night in Killam against the Wheat Kings. The team also lost in a shootout against the Wainwright Bisons on Saturday at home.
The team finished the season with a win against the Lac La Biche Clippers on Sunday afternoon, on home ice.
Failing to capitalize once on their five power plays, and the Wheat Kings scoring three unanswered goals, the Canadiens fell 6-3 on Friday night.
The following night saw the Bisons come to town in a fight to the finish.
St. Paul took the lead in the first period on the strength of Alex Astasiewicz’s goal, before the Bisons tied it six minutes later off a Kobe Scott shot.
The Canadiens trailed 3-1 after the second period and rallied to tie the game at 3 in the third after both Brendan Wozniak and Braydon Burak found the back of the net.
Wainwright reclaimed the lead when Zach MacKay beat Devin Allen a few minutes later.
With 3:01 remaining in the game and the Canadiens pressing, Arron Gagne put his shot past Billy Cawthorn to square things up and force overtime.
Cawthorn bailed his team out in overtime; however, as St. Paul peppered eight shots and hit two posts in the five-minute three-on-three frame, while the Bisons failed to record one shot.
After no one scored in the first two rounds of the shootout, Chandler Klein beat Allen to take the lead. Carson James would also score while the Canadiens drew a blank, losing the shootout 2-0.
In the final regular season game, the Canadiens took care of business with a 3-2 win against the Clippers.
Lac La Biche went 0-for-8 on the man advantage, while St. Paul notched one goal on three special teams tries.
“Tonight we needed to win, and it’s one of those things where the boys just got the job done, so all credit to them,” assistant coach Corey deMoissac said after the game.
Gagne scored twice including the game winner, while Roy added his 28th goal of the year.
Roy finished the season with 49 points, the most among the team.
Second behind Roy is Astasiewicz, who notched 42 points this season, good enough for second most in the league among defenceman. Only Wainwright’s captain Curtis McKinlay had more on the blue line, with 48.
With the regular season in the wraps the attention shifts to the battle of the NEAJBHL.
“Cold Lake is on a roll right now, so it’s going to be one of those battles with them. If we work hard and finish our hits (we’ll be okay),” said deMoissac. “They’re a team that buries their chances. They’re a very good team and well coached and it’s going to be a good series.”
Roy echoed his coach’s thoughts.
“It’s going to be a tough series, I think we’re 2-2 with them this year and they’ve been (good) games every time we play them.”
Goalie Michael Davis also offered some thoughts on the upcoming series.
“We’ve played them a couple of times before. We just have to play them the same way as we had before and (we’ll be fine),” said Davis.
St. Paul will play at home on Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 18 at 5 p.m. The team will then head to Cold Lake on Feb. 19 and Feb. 21. If needed, the best-of-seven series will return to St. Paul for Feb. 22, then Cold Lake on Feb. 24, and back to St. Paul for Feb. 25.
