The Slave Lake Wolves finished off the Peace River Navigators in five games last Wednesday, giving themselves a week of rest. They did it by coming back from an opening game overtime loss to win four straight against the Navigators.
That’s exactly what Coach Kurt Walsten said he was confident they could do, after they lost the opener.
“If we show up and work hard we can win four straight,” he said at the time.
Hard work was in evidence in the Wolves’ 7 – 0 series-ending victory on Feb. 19 at home. It capped a run of four games of probably the best-balanced hockey they have played all season. The Wolves won many high-scoring games in the regular season, but usually not by more than two goals. In the five playoff games against the Navigators they allowed a measly seven goals, for a 1.39 goals against average, while scoring 29. Mike Brierley seems to be playing with a lot of confidence right now. At least he’s stopping a lot of pucks, with a .956 save percentage in five playoff games.
The Wolves still gave quite a lot away in powerplays to the other team, but their penalty killing was good against a Peace River powerplay that was uninspired to say the least. The Navigators appeared intimidated, unwilling or unable to make the kind of effort it took to play with the Wolves.
“You put the body on them and they don’t show up,” says Walsten.
Sexsmith, meanwhile, beat Grande Prairie four games to two in the other East Division quarter final. The Wolves travel to Sexsmith for the first two games of the next series. Games three and four will be back on Slave Lake ice, this Saturday and Sunday.

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