Klippers Take Down Wings In 5, Sets Up Rematch Of Last Years Sherwood Final

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the weekend, it was a hectic one for myself.

As for Friday night it was quite the unique experience calling the game for the opposing teams radio station. I hope Weyburn fans weren't upset by my Red Wings are Dead Wings comment as the buzzer went to end the series. I had planned on using that line on the Klippers webcast, and since I was doing both I didn't hesitate from saying it. Other than that I called the game like I seen it and hopefully Weyburn fans were able to enjoy the game.

As for the game action, the Kindersley Klippers officially knocked off the Weyburn Red Wings in five games with a great bounce back effort on home ice. The Klippers dominated the Red Wings through 55 minutes of hockey and were sitting comfortable it seemed heading into the final stretch. The Wings hadn't really mustered a whole lot offensively all game but that extra desperation must of kicked in because they gave everything they had in the final five minutes of that hockey game. They scored two goals and had a few solid chances for the equalizer. In the end though the Klippers were able to hang on and are now off to the Sherwood Finals. In terms of the series the Klippers were certainly the better team. The Klippers fired 240 shots on goal in the 5 games, where as Weyburn generated 147. That's almost a hundred more shots fired in the series, which shows you how valuable Mitch Kilgore was to the Red Wings. As much credit as I give the Wings, if it wasn't for Mitch Kilgores strong play this series could of been a landslide.

As for the Wings next season, if they get everyone back they look strong. Kilgore, George, Bruce, Sanderson and Ross will likely all be back, meaning the Wings will be scary.

For the Klippers I gotta give Spencer Braaten some props. In game five I thought he had his best game of the series. He had some trouble scoring throughout the series and it seemed like his confidence might of been down. In game five though he got the monkey off his back and scored a huge goal for Kindersley. Himself and the King bros had been generating a ton of offense all series long, but had a bit of trouble finding the back off the net. I really think this trio will come up huge for Kindersley in the Yorkton series. The King bros would also connect for the series clincher as Sanfred found his brother Wheaton in front who made no mistake with a dirty finish bar down with the back hand.

Sticking with the series, enough can't be said about Braeden Adamyk for Kindersley. He was the series MVP without a doubt scoring 5 goals and adding 3 assists in the 5 games. Huge all season and huge thus far in the playoffs. His line mates Andrew Dommett and Johnny Calkins also had a big series each registering above a point per game pace.

A huge part of Kindersleys success in this series also was their backend. With all the offense up front the back end gets overshadowed at times. As a whole though in this series all six dmen were great. Kurt Leedahl was a stud all series, Sonntag leads all dmen in playoff scoring, Flanagan looked slick and collected, Lund was a shut down machine, Rogers played his best hockey I have seen from him all season long, and David Haaf looked cool, calm and confident in his first SJHL playoff series. The back end was great but they will need to be equally as good against a much more offensive team like Yorkton in the next round.

In terms of Yorkton, the Kindersley players are all fired up for a chance to get revenge for last years game 7 OT loss. The Klippers key will be to play Yorkton physically but at the same time play an offensive attack style of game. It seemed like that was Estevans problem, they are a very physical team but didn't have enough offense to match up against Yorkton.

Both teams are a bit banged up and have almost a full week to get healthy and prepare for game one this Friday in Yorkton. I will get to an in depth series preview some time this week for now I will leave it at that.

One more quick note as up in the air as everyone thought the SJHL was this season, the top four teams from the regular season represent your final four left in the playoffs.