It all starts tonight at 7 at Frank Crane Arena and continues with Game 2 on Saturday also in Nanaimo, before heading to Hap Parker Arena for Game 3 and 4 on Monday and Tuesday.
The Clippers won a tight 3-2 game in last year’s clash in the seventh and deciding game of the best-of-seven series.
Despite losing five of eight head-to-head, it was the Clippers who finished the regular season 38-18-1-1 for 78 points to top the Island Division and were 19-9-0-1 at home. The Kings were 33-20-4-1 overall for 71 points with a solid 22-5-1-1 tally at home and 11-15-3-0 on the road.
“We worked hard to finish first and try and have home-ice advantage and it’s important that we keep it,” said Clippers general manager and head coach Mike Vandekamp. “Powell River is a very challenging place to win a hockey game, for any team in this league, so it’s important that we’re focused for Game 1.”
The Clippers won two of the last three regular season meetings between the two teams. That all goes out the window in the post-season, however, and the victor of this series will advance to the three-team round-robin of divisional winners to determine two finalists. Chilliwack faces Wenatchee in the Mainland Division final and heavily favoured Penticton challenges West Kelowna for the Interior Division crown.
“One of our losses was the very first game of the season, so we’ve had some success against them. It’s obviously a feather in our cap to win the regular-season series. Moving forward, things are different and games mean so much more in the playoffs,” Kings’ assistant coach Brock Sawyer told play-by-play man Alex Rawnsley after Powell River’s overtime win to clinch the opening series over Cowichan Valley in six games.
“It’ll be another great series,” Sawyer said of the Nanaimo clash. “Obviously, last year was very emotional, it went the distance and the home team won every game. We know, going in, that we can win in that building. We have all the confidence in our guys, our goaltending and our defence, moving forward, to do all the right things to come out on top.”
The Clippers moved on to the championship final last season before losing out to the Vees.
Vandekamp has seven returning players who went through that grind.
“You draw from that. We played 23 games last playoffs and you take lessons from that, although there’s no direct correlation,” he said.
