It took five periods for the Smithers Steelheads to fall 6-5 to Terrace in game one of the CIHL West Division finals.
The fish found themselves in an early 3 goal hole. Calvin Johnson scored twice to help the team to a 5-3 second-period lead.
Terrace eventually tied it u[ and took game one with a double OT winner.
Coach Tom DeVries says the Steelheads weren’t playing their best hockey.
“I didn’t feel we had a great game. It almost seemed like we were a little rusty, not that we were, but we seemed to be fumbling the puck a lot,” he says. “It was a good game. We could’ve won it easy we had so many scoring chances, we just couldn’t capitalise and that’s what you gotta do.”
The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak, but DeVries says the players were focused on bigger things.
“I don’t even think anybody really even thought of that. It was just losing the first game of the playoffs, it’s a tough thing to do,” he says, “when it’s only a best-of-three, you don’t have that many chances, right?”
The Steelheads now trail the series 1-0.
Game 2 will be at the Civic Centre in Smithers on February 20th. The game time has changed and will now start at 5:30 PM.
Both photos were taken from the Terrace River King’s Facebook page.