The Nipawin Hawks hope to salute their fans at Centennial Arena all the way to another Canalta Cup (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff).

By Aaron Schulze

Hawks Playoffs

Hawks finish first, looking for second straight SJHL championship

Mar 10, 2019 | 4:43 PM

Finishing the regular season first overall and winning the Canalta Cup as Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) champions is not something unfamiliar to the Nipawin Hawks organization; they did it last year.

On the outside looking in, it seemed more difficult for the Hawks to accomplish both those goals again as the roster turnover was substantial.

The Hawks’ nine leading scorers from the 2018 championship team were gone and only six players returned for this season. They had 12 players coming into the season who were 18 or under, and six players playing their first full season of Junior A hockey.

Doug Johnson, Hawks head coach, admitted during the Christmas break he didn’t imagine his team this year would be fighting for first place at that point of the season.

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Now the season is over, and with the Hawks on top of the pile, all Johnson felt was pride.

“I don’t think anybody would have envisioned this,” Johnson told northeastNOW. “It’s just a testament to how hard the guys have worked and their commitment to excellence. I’m very happy; very proud of the job the guys have done this year.”

“You always want to finish first, that’s our goal every year. With all the new faces we figured it would be more of a challenge this year,” he added. ” Once Dec. 1 hit I think the guys knew we had an opportunity to do something pretty special and they just ran with it.”

By being first in the SJHL, the Hawks will have home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

However, one potential challenging aspect is their first round opponent remains unknown.

The SJHL has 10 playoff teams, although only six start in the quarter-finals while the other four (seeded seven through ten) play one another in a best-of-three survivor series. The winners then move on to face the first place Hawks or second place Battlefords North Stars.

The Hawks will face the lower seed of the four teams, meaning they won’t play the seventh placed Flin Flon Bombers no matter what, and will play either (ranked eight through 10) the Yorkton Terriers, Notre Dame Hounds, or Weyburn Red Wings.

Johnson admitted not knowing who the Hawks will face in the quarter-finals could be a challenge, although they’re comfortable with any team they may meet.

“We’ve always focused on what we do,” he said. “We talk a little bit about what other teams do, but our focus is on doing what we do and doing it better than anyone else. Now we get a little bit of time to relax, enjoy the moment, get 100 per cent healthy, and really get back to the basics; almost training camp mentality.”

An unknown first round opponent isn’t a concern, but what about playoff experience? Only six players from the 2018 Canalta Cup team remain and another six will be playing their first Junior A playoff series.

Once again, Johnson isn’t too worried, as he cited the Hawks’ final two games of the season as examples.

“The weekend series with Melfort was as close to playoff hockey as you’re going to get in the regular season,” he said. “I thought our young guys played outstanding, guys embraced it. The game against Melville wasn’t a do or die, but it was a huge game for us, we needed to win it and look who scored the two goals for us: Brodie Girod and Michael Makarenko, two first year guys.

“[Playoffs] is a different beast and it’s going to be a great experience for them, but our expectation is they’re just going to keep getting better every day.”

The Hawks have arguably been playing tight, playoff style hockey for nearly the entire season. Showing up in low scoring games such as the 1-0 win in Melfort and 2-1 win at home against Melville are both signs of that. They enter the playoffs with the SJHL’s best goals against (118) but the lowest goals scored amongst all playoff teams (159).

Special teams are no different. The Hawks enter the playoffs with the SJHL’s best penalty kill (88.8 per cent) and lowest power play amongst playoff teams (16.2 per cent).

If there was any expectation for the Hawks to change up their game to make up for offense in the playoffs, Johnson poured cold water on all those hot takes.

“I don’t think playoffs are a time where you make a ton of changes,” he said. “There’s a reason we ended up in first place. Are there things we need to improve on? Absolutely, we’re going to keep doing what we do and try to get better. We make a ton of changes then all of a sudden the players may not think we believe in them, this, or that, and there’s nothing that could be further from the truth. “

“There’s going to be some things we’re going to practice that we think will help the power play; put the guys in some different situations, but there’s not going to be huge personnel or structural changes.”

The Hawks’ first game of the SJHL playoffs at Centennial Arena has not yet been publicly announced.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow