By Joshua Boyd / NCDCHockey.com
Islanders Hockey Club (1) vs. Boston Junior Bruins (4)
Best of Three
All Games At Skate 3, Tyngsboro, Mass.
Tues., March 26, 2 p.m. EST
Wed., March 27, 2 p.m. EST
Fri., March 29, 2 p.m. EST (If Necessary)
The NCDC Dineen Cup Playoffs begin in earnest on Tuesday, with the opening of the first best-of-three series, pitting the New England Division regular season champion Islanders Hockey Club against the Boston Junior Bruins.
One key stat to keep in mind is the regular season is over, and anyone can beat anyone. The regular season, in this case, is very handy in terms of looking at the full season series – over eight games, the Islanders won by one point. They finished 4-1-2-1 with 11 points, while the Junior Bruins went 4-3-1-0 with nine points.
“Every single team in the NCDC playoffs is capable of going on a run and winning the Dineen Cup. We understand this and we know the Junior Bruins are an excellent well-coached hockey team,” said Islanders Head Coach Tim Kyrkostas. “Nevin Hamilton does a great job of getting his team organized and motivated to win. We are going to have to be on top of our game every single minute when we play them.”
“We had some really close games during the season against the Islanders Hockey Club with four of them being decided in OT or a shootout and I suspect we will see some more close battles in the playoff series,” said Junior Bruins Head Coach Nevin Hamilton. “Every game we play from now on will be the biggest game of the season, we have had a playoff mentality for weeks now and that certainly doesn’t change now.”
The IHC finished 36-11-4-1 for 77 points, outlasting the South Shore Kings by one point for the New England regular season title.
“We have had a wonderful season to date as we have far exceeded what everyone thought we could have accomplished as a team, based upon our last few seasons, but we are still hungry for more,” Kyrkostas said.
The Junior Bruins came across the line at 25-23-3-1, with 54 points. They defeated the Northern Cyclones, 5-2, in a Play-In Game on March 22.
In the regular season, Coleman Jenkins finished as the Junior Bruins’ team leader with 51 points in 50 games, followed by former Junior Bruin Premier player Jake Terra’s 49 points in 51 games. Svante Strandberg, a later arrival on defense, finished with 23 points in 28 games. Griffin Davis went 9-3-1-3 on the season this year in net, while fellow goaltender Jonathan Olson finishes 7-6-1-0.
Terra scored twice and Olson stopped 30 of 32 shots for the win against the Cyclones.
“We played with a lot of jump and excitement in the play in game last week and we need to carry that energy into these games. We generated a lot of scoring opportunities by entering the zone with speed but we will need to do a better job of driving the net against the Islanders,” Hamilton said. “Defensively our puck protection can improve and we need to make sure we are not forcing plays that just aren’t there coming out of our own zone.”
On the Islanders side, their veterans also led the way. Tikhon Ashikhmin was the offensive leader with 54 points in 52 games, while Maksim Tsegelnik put in 49 points, Max Lundgren scored 39 points and Braxton Powers scored 38 points in 44 games. On defense, Samuel Larsson came up with 33 points in 51 games.
In the net, Kael DePape joined in February and finished with a 6-1-0-0 record and a .922 save percentage. Former Premier Islanders goalie Ean Badgett has been solid this year with a 4-4 record, including stopping 31 of 33 shots in their final game against South Shore to help clinch the division title.
Every Islander will need to be on fire to get the series win, Kyrkostas knows full well.
“I expect this series to be very tight each and every game close contested, we respect the heck out of the Junior Bruins,” added Kyrkostas.
