It’s April but the Alberni Valley Bulldogs apparently never took down the tree. The Bulldogs headed into the sa国际传媒 Hockey League playoffs after recording the best record in the Coastal Conference regular season since Christmas at 21-4-1, and second best in the league in that time, behind only the runaway regular-season champion Penticton Vees.
Make that 23-4-1 overall since the big guy headed back to the North Pole as the Coastal third-seed Bulldogs opened their best-of-seven conference quarter-final playoff series with 7-5 and 4-0 victories over the sixth-seed Victoria Grizzlies on Friday and Saturday nights at the Alberni Valley Multiplex. The series swings into Colwood for the third and fourth games Tuesday and Wednesday at the Q Centre.
The high-scoring opening game Friday belied the fact that crease play was tipped to be a series key. But both crease starters returned to form in the second game. Hobie Hedquist, the Bulldogs’ six-foot-two American goaltender headed to traditional NCAA Div. 1 power North Dakota, made 32 saves in the Alberni Valley net for the shutout.
Grizzlies goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton, one of three finalists for both the BCHL rookie-of-the-year and top goaltender awards, made 34 saves. The final two Alberni Valley goals went into empty nets with Auyeung-Ashton pulled for an extra attacker.
Six-foot-three power forward Ethan Bono, from Port McNeill, gave the Bulldogs the lead at 11:55 of the first period. Holy-Cross committed Matt Kursonis extended that to a two-goal margin at 2:01 of the second period. Clarkson-bound Brandon Buhr and Zeke Nicholson, into empty nets, put it away in the final two minutes of the third period.
The series features 21 players — 12 on the Bulldogs including Hedquist, Bono, Kursonis and Buhr and nine on the Grizzlies — committed to NCAA Div. 1 teams.
In other Coastal Conference playoff quarter-final games Saturday, the conference top-seed Nanaimo Clippers — with interim coach Dave Liffiton behind the bench in place of the suspended Colin Birkas — were shocked 4-1 by the eighth-seed Langley Rivermen as that series is tied 1-1. There was another upset as the second-seed Surrey Eagles went down 5-3 to the seventh-seed Powell River Kings as that series went to 1-1. The fifth-seed Chilliwack Chiefs and fourth-seed Coquitlam Express were tied 2-2 heading into overtime Saturday night. The Chiefs won 4-1 Friday.
