The Express find themselves with their backs against the wall Sunday evening. Game 6 heads back to the Poirier with a 3-2 advantage for the Grizzlies and Coquitlam are set to make their stand. Battered, bruised, banged up, but not nearly ready to back down.
This series has been a blockbuster from the opening faceoff back in Game 1. Twice now proceedings have gone to overtime and the scoreline has been close for a majority of each contest. Despite all the fantastic moments and the back and forth momentum swings, neither team has successfully accomplished one important feat. Winning on the road. It may never happen, and if so the Grizzlies would not mind at all. That means if Coquitlam want to move on they must keep the home ice supremacy tonight and then take their best shot on Tuesday. The Express have come close, with the Game 1 overtime loss and a wild 7-5 Game 5 that saw Coquitlam battle back from down three. Close isn’t good enough when it comes to the postseason, and every body in that locker room is ready to run through a wall to earn one more chance in Game 7.
Winning playoff games without your full roster is a tale as old as time. Some of the best runs materialize from misfortune with key players being sidelined due to injury and the door being open for someone to step up. The Express can either look at their current injured player list and find excuses, or motivation. There have been plenty of motivated guys in this series already, and with this opening round at it’s potential breaking point, the time is now to leave everything out there. Whether it is the desire to move on to the next round, or simply just to earn your 20’s some more Junior games, everyone has their motives and they will be tested tonight.
The Express need to get greasy tonight. Their best chances in this series have come from throwing the puck on goal and the ensuing battles that follow. Just look at Game 5. Connor Seeley throws a puck on goal that finds a way past Auyeung-Ashton, Sam Frandina goes hard to the goal and gets a jam play to go, Zocco was a shooter, and Sitnikov went hard to the crease on a powerplay setup. Too many times this series the Express have been searching for the right opportunity when some of the best ones have been there all along. If you are the Grizzlies then defending the netfront will transversely be of utmost importance today. Use those big bodies and long reaches to get sticks and jerseys in the shooting lanes so that Coquitlam cannot find the all important ice down low.
The players to watch tonight for the Express are simply the 20’s. That group should display a fierce sense of urgency and play with desperation to lead this home side to victory. With Brandes, Odyniec and likely Kesselring out tonight, that burden will fall on James Shannon, Andrew Ness, Andrej Kovacevic and Sam Frandina.
On the side of the Grizzlies, watch out for Tobias Pitka to have another big night. He logged a hat trick on Friday with some exceptional tips through traffic off point shots and was a handful for Coquitlam to deal with defensively off-puck.
Coquitlam, the boys need you. There is already a plethora of motivation to see Game 7 but the roaring crowd is something else entirely. Grab your tickets online and secure your place for a fantastic Game 6 tonight at the Train Station.
– Ian Wilson
