Now or never for Leafs, game three Friday at NDCC Arena
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
It’s time to put up or shut up for the Nelson Leafs.
Down two games entering game three of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League Murdoch Semi Final to the Beaver Valley Nitehawks, the Leafs can ill-afford to fall into a three-game deficit.
“We have to win our two games at home to be successful,” Leaf coach Chris Shaw told The Nelson Daily Thursday.
“It’s a make or break situation for us. But we’re pretty confident playing at home where we’ve had a lot of success this season.”
That success, however, has been limited against the Hawks. In four games at the NDCC Arena, Beaver Valley has won three.
“We got to concentrate on our scoring chances and on our power play,” Shaw confessed. “We had some chances to get back in the game (Wednesday) but our power play let us down.”
Shaw said the mood in the Leaf dressing room improved immensely following game one’s meltdown.
“The guys feel a lot better than after the first game,” said Shaw. “I thought we played well enough to win in game two.”
Nelson played Wednesday’s game without the services of top center Gavin Currie.
Shaw did not want to comment on Currie, who spent the past six weeks on the injury list, saying the star forward is “questionable” for Friday.
The rookie coach did call out his top players to be better when the puck drops at 7 p.m. Friday.
“Our top players need to be our top players,” Shaw insists. “Our forwards six through nine, our younger guys, have been great. We really need our older guys to provide veteran leadership to lead us to victory.”
ICE CHIPS: Game four is Saturday at 7 p.m. in the NDCC Arena. If necessary, game five is Monday in Fruitvale. . . . Nelson’s top two scorers from the regular season, Colton Schell and Joel Stewart, have yet to register a point in the series.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
