The Vancouver Northeast Chiefs balanced some good news with a few rough patches.
The B.C. Major Midget Hockey League squad last week secured a berth to the prestigious Mac’s AAA Midget Hockey Tournament in Calgary, thanks to being one of the top-five teams in the league standings.
Unfortunately, a pair of tight losses to the Valley West Hawks on the weekend bumped them down two notches.
The Chiefs were edged 3-2 and 6-4 by the Hawks in a home-and-home series where troubles in the third period tainted some strong performances. Keep in mind that Valley West is currently tied with the Vancouver Northwest Giants and Cariboo Cougars for first place at 11-4-1.
In the opener, Vancouver fell behind 2-0 but pulled even in the middle frame on goals by New Westminster’s Liam Ryan and Chong Min Lee. The Hawks grabbed the lead with 11:23 to play in the third and protected it well.
“We thought we did a solid job in their barn, we were winning the races and dominating the puck,” said Chiefs coach Jamie Jackson. “We had a good number of scoring chances, but we dropped off in the third, and our energy level wasn’t the same.”
A day later, the squad appeared in control and leading 4-2 midway through the third before a calamity of penalties put the Chiefs on their heels.
The Hawks’ powerplay took advantage on each opportunity, scoring four unanswered goals to snatch a victory from Vancouver.
“It wasn’t a case of momentum, I saw it as more the fact we couldn’t stop taking penalties,” Jackson said. “We were really good five-on-five but things went astray. The discipline wasn’t there and that’s one thing we’re going to be talking about this week.”
Scoring for the Chiefs, who draw players from Burnaby, New Westminster, the Tri-Cities and Ridge Meadows, were Brett Didyk, Sho Takai, Jessie Young and Lee, with his team-leading seventh of the season.
Jackson said the progress of Burnaby’s Jonny Sheardown and New West’s Emilio Salas, who are paired together, has been steady.
“They work well together. Jonny has really taken off over the last three weeks, and been our best defenceman day-in, day-out,” remarked Jackson. “Emilio’s really accelerated his development over the past month and he’s turned into a real anchor with Jonny on the blue line.”
Sheardown scored twice in the team’s most recent win, a 5-3 triumph over the Giants two weeks ago.
The Chiefs visit second-to-last North Island Silvertips this weekend.
