Grabbing the brooms against the Yukon Rush - Saskatoon Sweep

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SASKATOON - The playoffs started quite a while ago and the Saskatoon Wild have lived up to expectations so far. The number one team in the Victory Hockey League Minors went against the 8th place Yukon Rush. The first game was a big 7-0 win for the Wild, with goals coming courtesy of Dagmar Havlova (who scored 2), Mikko Lahtinen, Gary Tarantino, David OQuinn, Kristopher McDagg, and Edu Stava. This was young goaltender's Jacques Lafontaine first shutout in the Victory Hockey Leagye Minors playoffs. 

 

The next game was 6-1 victory for the Wild. Killy Foilen and Edu Stava both scored 2 goals this game, both of them being the top two stars of the game. Gary Tarantino and Elliot Porter also scored for the Wild. The first Rush goal of this series was scored by Matvei Albertenko. 

In the next game, the Saskatoon Wild were dominant in the first period, getting 5 of their 7 goals there. Those 7 goals consisted of Damien Wolfe's hat trick, as well as goals by Mikko Lahtinen, Edwin THE Encarnacion, Danny DeYeeto, and Jesse Nyman. The final score was 7-3. It turns out that game would be the closest the Rush would get to beating the Wild in a game.

 

It was a 3-0 series lead for the Wild, all they needed to do was win this last game in order to sweep the Yukon Rush. And win they did. The Saskatoon Wild scored 10 goals, courtesy of Lahtinen, who got a hat trick, Jesse Nyman and Ondrej Ohdraka, who both got 2 goals for the Wild, as well as Killy Foilen, Dagmar Havlova, and Edwin THE Encarnacion. It was a 10-1 win as Chad Magnum was the lone goal scorer for the Yukon Rush. This win completed a first round sweep by the Wild.

 

When asked about how they got the sweep, Jacques Lafontaine responded saying, "The key to our success was continual pressure. Once we knocked them down with that big first win, we didn't let them get back up. We never let them crawl back into the game, which was crucial to our dominance. We worked well as a team, playing as one big unit. Defensively, we were in shutdown mode. I played well and stopped the puck when I needed to. All we have to do for our next game is to keep our momentum going, to keep the pressure on. I mean, glass will break with enough pressure. We just gotta keep on pushing until we win it all. If I remember correctly, the Halifax 21st are up against us next. They are a pretty good team so we just gotta hold on and stay strong against them. We know that we can beat them so we are working hard to get better and improve our game."

 

The Halifax 21st were fifth place by the end of the Regular Season. They were against the Philadelphia Reapers for their first round of these playoffs, winning the series 4-2 and moving on to the second round.

 

Will the 21st be able to stop the powerhouse that is the Saskatoon Wild or will they be trampled? The question will be answered as the Halifax 21st will take on the Wild soon. Let's see if Saskatoon can keep this historic season going.