The Dauphin Clippers advanced to the Westman High School Hockey League semifinals with a two-game sweep over the Glenboro/Carberry/Baldur Wildcats in their best-of-three quarterfinal series.
Tyron Sweetman scored twice to lead Dauphin to a 5-3 win in game one, Feb. 28 in Dauphin.
Jake Kuzmiak, Trayden Guiboche and Braydyn Paskaruk each had a goal and an assist, while Owen Chubka made 23 saves in the victory.
Preston Shearer, Nathan Dyck and Carter Elliott had the Wildcats’ goals and Sawyer Wiebe had 29 saves to his credit.
In game two, Wednesday in Glenboro, Ethan Carnegie scored the winning goal 14 seconds into overtime to lift the Clippers to a 4-3 win and the series sweep.
Logan Chapman scored twice in regulation for Dauphin, with Kuzmiak adding a single.
Chubka had a busier night in game two, making 35 saves.
Griffin Anderson, Trey Dickson and Shearer scored for the Wildcats, while Wiebe made 28 saves.
Clippers manager Jason Alf said the Wildcats came out with a lot of pride after allowing six goals in each of the two games between the two teams in the regular season.
“They wanted to redeem themselves. They’re a very hard working team and we knew they weren’t just going to lay over. Playoffs are a new season, so they came out like we thought they would and gave us a good run,” he said.
Alf feels the team was able to stay disciplined, which was a factor in the series win.
“And we really tried to make an adjustment to the way they came out in game two. They didn’t give us a lot of room to do things and their barn is a little bit smaller than ours, so that made it a little more difficult,” he added. “But we never gave up. We never got down. We had three one-goal leads in that game. And really, we just put the pressure on in overtime and didn’t try to do anything fancy. Just kind of muck around and play that gritty hockey and try and score that way. And that’s what worked.”
The Clippers will now face the Swan Valley Tigers in the best-of-three semifinals, with game one tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Credit Union Place.
Game two will be in Swan River, Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Game three, if necessary, will be back in Dauphin, Mar. 14, at 7:30 p.m.
The other semifinal will see the Killarney/Wawanesa Raiders take on the Neepawa Tigers.
On Friday, the Clippers will be in Winnipeg for the AAAA high school hockey provincials.
Their first game is at 11 a.m., against Garden City, followed by a game at 3 p.m. against Steinbach.
The semifinals will be played Saturday, with the championship, Monday at 6:30 p.m.
