St Malo Warriors launch into CRJHL finals
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This article was published 22/03/2024 (498 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The St Malo Warriors are one series away from their first championship in over 15 years.
The Warriors swept the Lundar Falcons out of the Capital Region Junior Hockey League (CRJHL) playoffs, winning their semi-final four games to none, including a 6-0 victory in game four March 15.
Teagan Fillion scored his first of the playoffs just two minutes in while St Malo was on the penalty kill, and his goal would stand up as the game winner.
“We were very business-like,” head coach Ralph Collette said after the series.
“We knew Lundar wasn’t going to be easy. We knew they were a big, physical team, and we just needed to use the ice to advantage.”
Special teams played a massive role in the series, with the Warriors perfect on the penalty kill while converting on over a third of their own opportunities.
“We think we’ve done our homework and hopefully we’ll do the same against Beausejour,” Collette said.
The Warriors are playing a somewhat unexpected opponent in the finals, after the Beausejour Comets defeated the top-seeded Selkirk Fishermen 4-1 in the other semi-final.
Nikolas Bear scored five minutes into a second overtime period to send the Comets, only playing their second year in the CRJHL, into their first final.
Collette was full of praise for Troy Kennedy, Beausejour’s head coach.
“They’re a hard-working team,” Collette said.
“They’re relentless. They’ve got lots of good local guys there, it seems like everyone’s buying in to Troy’s system.”
The upset prevented a re-match of last year’s CRJHL final, where St Malo came up short against a more experienced Selkirk team. Collette said he sees similarities between the Comets’ 2024 team and his own squad from last year.
“It wasn’t our time last year, and we’re hoping it’s our time this year,” Collette said.
“When you come this far, you want to win, and you don’t care what the stats are… we know it’s not going to be easy.”
The atmosphere inside both the St Malo Arena and Sun Gro Centre in Beausejour should be electric, with both teams bringing out great crowds so far this post-season, especially on weekends.
The series is set to get underway March 22 in St Malo, with puck drop at 8 p.m. Action will continue through the rest of the week, with the teams travelling back to Beausejour March 23, before returning to St Malo March 27.