CANORA – The U18 Canora Cobras began their playoff run on Feb. 25 at the Canora Civic Centre. Being the eighth seed, they were faced with the challenge of being matched up against the top-seeded Yorkton Terriers in the first round playoff series. The Terriers came out on top in Game 1 by a 9-2 score.
The Terriers came out fast and the Cobras found themselves trailing 5-1 before Game 1 was even 12 minutes old. The first Cobras goal was scored by Reein Godhe of Buchanan on assists from Bostin Smith of Sturgis and Ayden Lukey of Norquay. After a timeout was called, the Cobras responded with a goal from Avyn Seerey of Sturgis, assisted by Westin Lindgren of Norquay and Bracyn Konkel of Sturgis. Unfortunately that would turn out to be the last goal for the Cobras, and the Terriers added two goals in the second period, and two more in the third. Goalie Cody Vangen of Canora made 39 saves for the Cobras, including a number on Grade A Terriers scoring chances.
Cobras Coach Adam Vangen said the first-place Terriers are a difficult team to face, and making it even more of a challenge is the size of their roster.
“Yorkton is hard to beat because of the number of players they have,” said Vangen. “They can’t dress the whole team for games so they have players who sit games out. Teams never know what roster they will be facing. We also have had a very short bench lately with players being injured and away. The combination makes an uphill battle for us.”
After a slow start in Game 1, Vangen found it necessary to call a first-period timeout with the Cobras trailing 5-1.
“Absolutely it helped, we had to regroup and reset. We played better as the game went on. We expected a tough game being that Yorkton is in first place and we are in eighth place.”
The series now moves to Yorkton, where the Cobras will be looking to get into the win column.
“We need to be consistent, fore-check hard and work on more offensive zone time,” said Vangen. “We need shots on net to make something happen and score some goals.
After a slow start, Vangen said the Cobras showed noticeable growth as the regular season went on.
“We’ve struggled in the beginning of the season and worked hard to get ourselves into eighth in the league. The second half of our season was much stronger and the boys stepped up to make themselves a tough team to beat in some key games.”
The Cobras were scheduled to travel south on March 2 for Game 2 of their series against Yorkton.
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