Having dusted off the Powell River Kings in four straight games could come back to haunt the Nanaimo Clippers, who will have sat for nine days before getting into their first matchup of the B.C. Hockey League’s strange Round 3 round-robin format on Thursday.
But it could just as easily be a godsend for the Clippers, who will venture into West Kelowna to face former Victoria Salsa coach Ryan Ferster and his Warriors’ club at 7 p.m.
The third round began Tuesday night with West Kelowna (the Interior Division champ) beating the Chilliwack Chiefs, winners of the Mainland Division, 5-1.
Nanaimo, the Island Division victor the last two years, should be raring to go.
“I think it was good to get some rest and heal up some injuries so we should be really healthy when it starts. It’s not great, though,” Clippers general manager and head coach Mike Vandekamp said of the layoff. “When you have a lot of momentum on your side, it’s never great to be sitting.
“I think at first it won’t be an advantage, but once we get going — because we do have to play Thursday, Saturday and Monday with some pretty decent travel in between all that — through that first five minutes, it will be an advantage.”
And in this unique format, in which the three remaining teams play each other once away and once at home to determine the two finalists, it makes for a different preparation than studying one team for a possible seven-game series.
Vandekamp did recently see Chilliwack play live, but was more than content watching the opening game of Round 3 via the Internet on Tuesday night.
“With video you have access to everything now, it’s changed,” said Vandekamp. “You can get your team pretty prepared. It’s interesting when you’re playing this series, because it’s not really a series. Right now, it’s a one-off game you’re preparing for. It’s sort of like a Game 1 or a Game 7 — I’m not sure which one it is.
“It’s not so much preparing for the other club as it is playing your own game, I think,” he added.
He just would have preferred playing right away.
“I’d rather have been playing the first one because we have been off since last Tuesday. We want to know some things, obviously, about the other club, but we don’t want to over-coach it either. We want to be focused on our own game as much as we can be,” said Vandekamp.
As for how the teams did head-to-head in the regular season, Vandekamp isn’t taking much stock into that as the Clippers twice lost 7-4 to West Kelowna, but defeated Chilliwack 2-1 in overtime on the road and 4-2 at home.The Clippers haven’t faced either team since the second week of December.
“I don’t think any of that means a whole heck of a lot,” said Vandekamp. “Everybody’s had changes, be it personnel or teams have just become better. I know we’re better than we were nine games ago. You grow and you get better as the playoffs go along, too.
“Everybody is 0-0 (prior to Tuesday night) and that’s the truth. Both teams are very good, though, and both are going to provide a major challenge.”
The Clippers and Chiefs do have the benefit of having played in Round 3 last year against Penticton. This is the first time in West Kelowna’s 10-year history that the Warriors have won the division.
“This is a new format to me, a new format to our team,” Ferster told The Province. “Nanaimo and Chilliwack were both part of it last year with Penticton, so advantage them, for right now.
“We’re going to approach it like a bunch of mini Game 7s.”
SCHEDULE
• TUESDAY
West Kelowna 5 Chilliwack 1
• THURSDAY
Nanaimo at West Kelowna, 7 p.m.
• SATURDAY
Chilliwack at Nanaimo, 7 p.m.
• MONDAY
Nanaimo at Chilliwack, 7 p.m.
• APRIL 6
Chilliwack at West Kelowna, 7 p.m.
• APRIL 8
West Kelowna at Nanaimo, 7 p.m.
(The first team to three wins advances to the best-of-seven final. The remaining teams will go back and forth in a home-and-home format until one team also achieves three wins.)
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