In the playoffs, never underestimate the value of goaltending in hockey, pitching in baseball or quarterbacking in football. Harry Sinden of the Bruins and Team Canada fame went one further and compared it to putting in golf.
Whatever analogy you want to use, the Victoria Grizzlies have it in the B.C. Hockey League. Oliver Auyeung-Ashton has turned in two 36-save performances to backstop the fourth-seed Grizzlies to a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven Coastal Conference opening-round playoff series against the fifth-seed Nanaimo Clippers.
Those saves were crucial in the 4-2 opening victory and there when needed in the more comfortable 8-2 Victoria win in the second game as Auyeung-Ashton again showed why he was named BCHL rookie of the year last season and has earned an NCAA scholarship to Colgate University.
“Pressure is a privilege,” Auyeung-Ashton, about the unique position goaltending holds in playoff hockey.
“I block out the noise and live in the moment stopping the puck.”
The third and fourth games will be played tonight and Wednesday night at Frank Crane Arena in the Harbour City. The fifth game, if required, would be Friday at The Q Centre. The sixth and seventh games, if needed, are scheduled for Saturday in Nanaimo and next Monday at The Q Centre.
“We have stayed disciplined in the series and stuck to our structures,” said Auyeung-Ashton.
“But we haven’t won anything yet. A series does not really start until the home team loses a game.”
Despite that Victoria (29-22-3) finished fourth in the regular-season standings, three points ahead of fifth-place Nanaimo (27-23-4), the Clippers won the seven-game regular-season series between the clubs 5-2.
“We’ve had a good push back against Nanaimo in this playoff series so far,” said Auyeung-Ashton, about the Clippers’ regular-season dominance over the Grizzlies.
Auyeung-Ashton, who turns 19 on Thursday, missed a couple of months with an injury, and his return just before the playoffs couldn’t have been better timed for the Grizzlies.
“I didn’t go back to the Mainland [to rehabilitate the injury] and was at the rink every day with the guys,” said the native of Coquitlam.
Grizzlies head coach Rylan Ferster has listed “special teams, luck and goaltending” as the key ingredients to playoff success and not necessarily in that order.
“Oliver [Auyeung-Ashton] is our No. 1 goalie and doing what you expect your No. 1 guy to do,” said Ferster, following the second game of the series.
“He gives us that.”
The other Coastal Conference series feature the top-seed Surrey Eagles against the eighth-seed Cowichan Valley Capitals, second-seed Chilliwack Chiefs versus the seventh-seed Langley Rivermen and third-seed Alberni Valley Bulldogs against the sixth-seed Coquitlam Express.
The Bulldogs and Express are tied 1-1 heading into the next two games tonight and Wednesday in Coquitlam. The Capitals trail their series against Surrey 2-0 heading into the third and fourth games tonight and Wednesday at the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan. The Chiefs led Langley 2-0 heading into Monday’s third game.
