How They Got HereSwan: Finished 3rd and upset the 2nd place Portage Terriers in 5 games in Round 1.
Dauphin: Finished 1st in the league and swept 4th place Neepawa in the first round.
Swan Valley Leaders (Regular Season)
Points: Stevens (78), Marshall (76), Reimer (61)
Goals: Marshall (38), Reimer (37), Stevens (27)
Assists: Stevens (51), Marshall/D.Riddell (38), Reimer/Selinger (35)
D-Man Points: Wilson (42), Bonar (39), Straker (23)
Rookie Points: Evan Morden (15), Brendan Mitchell (4), J. Riddell (3)
Swan Valley Leaders (Playoffs)
Stevens 4g-5a-9p (in 5 games)
Marshall 3g-4a-7p
Gray 2g-4a-6p
Reimer 3g-2a-5p
Selinger 2g-2a-4p
D-Man: Straker 3a (in 3 games)
Dauphin Leaders
Points: Shane Luke (101), Ryan Dreger (99), Bryce Lamb (89)
Goals: Dreger (53), Lamb (38), Luke (29)
Assists: Luke (72), Steven Shamanski (52), Lamb/Zeimer (51)
D-Man Points: Shamanski (71), Patrick Kozyra (32), Matt Backhouse (24)
*Shamanski played forward a lot down the stretch for Dauphin, but when on the blueline is arguably tops in the league*
Rookie Points: Backhouse (24), Tyler Gaudry (12)
Dauphin Leaders (Playoffs)
Ziemer: 3g-4a-7p (4 games)
Shamanski: 2g-5a-7p
Lamb: 4g-2a-6p
Dreger: 1g-4a-5p
Luke: 2g-3a-5p
Season Series
Swan Valley: 4-4-0-0 (35 goals for)
Dauphin: 4-4-0-0 (37 goals for)
Oct/7 @ SV: 3-2 DAU
Nov/18 @ SV: 7-4 SV
Nov/25 @ SV: 5-2 SV
Dec/9 @ DAU: 5-3 DAU (empty net)
Jan/2 @ SV: 6-1 SV
Jan/8 @ DAU: 5-4 SV
Feb/9 @ DAU: 9-3 DAU
Feb/20 @ DAU: 9-4 DAU
@ Dauphin: Kings 3-1, Stamps 1-3
@ Swan: Stamps 3-1, Kings 1-3
The first three games that I saw in this season series, the 3-2 Dauphin win, the 5-3 Dauphin win, and the 5-4 Swan win in Dauphin, were three of THE BEST games I've seen in either league this season. Up-tempo, back and forth, and great goaltending. Here's hoping this Best-of-Seven features all of the above. Most game were close, but each team had their turn owning the opposition on home ice, looking at the 5-2 and 6-1 Stampeder wins, and the 9-3 and 9-4 Dauphin victories in the final two meetings. That's somewhat of a concern to the Stamps, since they were blown out in the only two games after the January 10th roster freeze, where the Kings added a few final pieces.
Head-to-Head Stats
Swan Valley
Marshall 6g-7a-13p
Stevens 4g-7a-11p (7 games)
Reimer 6g-4a-10p
Gray 3g-6a-9p (6 games)
Selinger 4g-5a-9p
D. Riddell 3g-6a-9p
Wilson 3g-2a-5p (5 games)
Dauphin
Shamanski 2g-13a-15p
Luke 7g-8a-15p
Dreger 9g-5a-14p
Czibere 3g-6a-9p (7 games)
Ziemer 2g-4a-6p (4 games)
*Interesting to note, while Luke & Dreger combined for 16 goals and 29 points against Swan, their other linemate Lamb scored just once and had 5 points.
Between the Pipes
For Swan, it's Jayme Janzen's ball to run with, while Dauphin has two veterans in Joe Caligiuri and Brett Willows, who nearly split the load during the season. Caligiuri's the 20 year old, a former Western Leaguer, and was brought in to be their guy and lead them into the RBC. And, after playing all four games against Neepawa in Round 1, one would only assume it's his gig against the Stampeders, but IF things don't go well, or there's an injury, I think Marlin Murray would be confident that Willows could step in and not miss a beat.
Swan Valley
#29 Jayme Janzen: 15-17-0-3, 3.33 GAA, .907% (SV/Wayway)
#33 Caden Unger: 9-2-1-2, 2.92 GAA, .902%, 1 SO
Janzen in playoffs: 4-1, 2.32 GAA, .920%
Janzen vs DAU (w/ Swan): 2-2, 4.27 GAA, .904%
Dauphin
#35 Joe Caligiuri: 29-6-1-0, 2.59 GAA, .909%, 1 SO
#29 Brett Willows: 21-5-0-0, 2.80 GAA, .906%, 2 SO
Caligiuri in playoffs: 4-0, 1.50 GAA, .936%
Caligiuri vs SV: 3-2, 3.75 GAA, .876%
Willows vs SV: 1-2, 5.63 GAA, .826%
Special Teams
Swan Valley
Reg Season PP: 24.2% (3rd)
Playoff PP: 11.5%
Reg Season PK: 78.2% (8th)
Playoff PK: 89.3%
Swan's PP vs DAU: 6/44= 13.6% (Kings' PK 86.4%)
Dauphin
Reg Season PP: 24.3% (2nd)
Playoff PP: 18.2%
Reg Season PK: 88.6% (1st)
Playoff PK: 88.2%
Dauphin's PP vs SV: 8/33= 24.2% (Stamps' PK 75.8%)
For the Stampeders to upset the league leaders, heavy favourites and RBC hosts, they'll need to:
- Stay out of the box. By the head to head special teams numbers, if it becomes a penalty parade, it's advantage Dauphin. While the two teams had two of the top three powerplay units in the regular season, the Stampeders' penalty kill was in the bottom half of the league, and they can't afford to give Dauphin chances.
- Get their powerplay back on track. Yes, 3rd best in the regular season, but a sore spot against Portage in Round 1. They managed to win Game Five 6-1 in Portage, while going 0/11 on the man advantage, and were just over 11% in the series. If the Kings give the Stamps near as many chances with the PP as Portage did, they need to make them pay.
- Find some secondary scoring. Lines 3 and 4 don't have to score AS OFTEN as lines 1 and 2, but a big goal here or there would take a huge load of the Stampeders' top six forwards. They scored 18 goals against Portage, all of which came from forwards, and 16 of them were from the top two lines. Stevens/Gray/Reimer had 9, Marshall/Riddell/Selinger had 7, while the other two lines scored once each (Jeff Peel & Connor Pennell). Dauphin has four lines who can score, so the Stampeders, who are maybe the 2nd deepest team up front in the league only to the Kings, will have to dig deep, and at the very least have Peel's line and Pennell's line play even (+/-) hockey against a 'so-called' Kings 3rd line that could feature someone like Devin Mitzner or Troy Hunter or Colton Graf.
Same goes for the Stamps' blueline. While priority #1 is keeping pucks out and containing Dauphin's quick forwards, their defenseman were held goal-less against Portage, and they've got the horses back there who can contribute, with the likes of Bonar, Wilson and Straker especially. Those are probably the only three who are SHOE-INS to be in the lineup every night, with the Stamps having no less than 8 very capable defenseman who can play. 16-year-old Evan Morden earned his way into the lineup, replacing Cody Straker vs Portage during his suspension, and Coach Kirkup couldn't take him out. Dylan Trowell and Phillipe St. Laurent each took a turn sitting in the final two games of the series. Kirk Mastad's played in every game so far and has been steady, and has shown the ability to jump up in the play on occassion. Rookie Brendan Mitchell hasn't played in the playoffs, but I know Kirkup's a big fan of his, and would love to get him in sometime at forward or defense. Nice problem to have, with capable guys in the press box chomping at the bit.
- Shoot the puck! Again, Caligiuri and Willows are both great goalies, but for the amount of wins and low GAA's they have, their save percentages are good, but not great (both under .910). Swan will need 30+ shots to win, and these goalies haven't seen that many very often, with approximately 5 goals of support per game each. Dauphin out-shot their opponents in 47 of the 62 games they played in. They DID win 50 afterall!
*Stamps scored 5 goals or more in each of their 4 wins against Dauphin.
- Have Jayme Janzen go save for save (or more) with Joe Caligiuri. Janzen's a laid back, quietly confident goalie, who's looking forward to the challenge. He was very good against Portage, and aside from Game 2, wasn't forced to STEAL a game. He certainly did steal Game 2, making an out-of-this-world glove save while on the PK in overtime, just minutes before Chris Reimer scored to give them the 2-1 win, and 2-0 series lead. He just might have to steal one, or two, for the Stampeders to have a chance.
- Win a game in Dauphin's rink (OBVIOUSLY). As the lower seed, the Stamps will play a maximum of three games in their own rink, which means they have to win at least once at Credit Union Place in Dauphin. One of the greatest games you'll see at the Junior 'A' level was back on January 8th, when the Stamps won 5-4 in Dauphin, after the Kings started the season with 20 straight wins on home ice. They ended the season 28-and-2 at CUP, so a road victory there for anyone is a tall order.
This one should be a beauty!
Game 1 tonight (FRI) won't be on GX94 (we're in Weyburn for Yorkton's Game 5 vs the Wings), but if you can't make it Dauphin, tune into Voice of the Kings Kevin Jeffery on 730 CKDM, or 730ckdm.com.
Games 2 (SAT) and 3 (WED) for sure will be on GX94 (http://www.gx94radio.com/) , and that's all we know for sure right now.
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