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Edam ousts Beaver Blues in game 5

Mar 7, 2017 | 9:00 AM

The Battleford Beaver Blues were one game away from advancing to the league finals after their 4-3 overtime win on Feb. 27, but the Edam Three Stars outscored them 12-4 in the next two games, winning the semifinal series three games to two.

Edam moves on to play Hafford in the Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League final, and Battleford’s season is done.

The 7-3 win in game four and 5-1 win in game five for Edam were much closer than the scores suggest, according to Beaver Blues defenceman Kevin Russell.

“A couple scores that they beat us on didn’t really reflect it… [but] they were tight games,” Russell said. “We had a couple mental breakdowns when they capitalized lots [because] they score in flurries. We were two evenly matched teams and they just got the better of us.”

In the deciding game this past Friday, Edam led 2-1 going into the third. They scored two quick goals to go up 4-1 and then added an empty netter to seal the deal.

“[Those] quick goals in the third period sort of took the wind out of us all of a sudden,” Russell said.

The series was expected to be a close, with Edam as the second seed and Battleford the third seed. They both swept their opening round matchups as well.

But Russell said it’s not just these two teams that have close battles night in and night out.

“The top five teams in our league are pretty close with one another,” Russell said. “On any given day anybody can win. They just showed it in the Shellbrook vs. Hafford series, right? It was first playing fifth place and it went to game five.

“The top five teams are pretty close and even the bottom five teams, they can win on any given day too.”

That other semifinal series saw Hafford come back from a 2-0 deficit to win and advance to the final where they’ll meet Edam. Shellbrook were the defending champions, while Hafford won the league the year before.

Russell believes that kind of parity is nothing but good news for the league.

“We have…other teams, other communities that want to join our league, so obviously I believe we’ve got something built that everybody wants,” he said. “There’s people knocking on the door that want into our league.”

Russel also said he wished the teams in the finals good luck.

“It should be a quick pace, hard hitting series.”

 

 

Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11