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One down, two to go for the Calgary Canucks in the playoff round of the 2024 Centennial Cup.
A 4-2 victory in Friday night’s quarterfinal flashes them forward to the final four at the Canadian Junior Hockey League championship in Oakville, Ont.
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The excitement is mounting.
“For sure,” said Canucks GM/head coach Brad Moran. “We want to keep going. Quick turnaround, so good to keep us focused.”
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Indeed, with the win over the Winkler Flyers, it’s off to the semis on Saturday.
The Canucks square off with the Melfort Mustangs — the champions of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League — at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex (5:30 p.m., HockeyCanada.ca).
The winner advances to Sunday’s championship finale in Oakville (1 p.m., TSN2) to play the victor of the other semi — that being the Ontario Junior Hockey League-winning Collingwood Blues and the Maritime Junior Hockey League-champs Miramichi Timberwolves.
The T-Wolves downed the Central Canada Hockey League-kingpin Navan Grads 8-4 in Friday’s other quarterfinal contest.
The Canucks-Flyers quarter wasn’t decided until the third period, when Chris Kobelka — with his goal just 26 seconds in — and Matthew Paszkiewicz scored 4:08 apart for the Alberta Junior Hockey League champions.
That re-established a two-goal lead for the Canucks they lost in the second period when the Manitoba Juinor Hockey League-winning Flyers scored twice on goaltender Julian Molinaro.
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But Molinaro shut the door for the final 21 minutes of the tilt. The star twine-minder saved 21 pucks game-wide.
Gavin Schmidt notched a goal for the Canucks in the first period, and Ty Hipkin got a second-period short-handed marker to put the AJHL side up 2-0 in the match.
“Fun to play with the season on the line,” added Moran. “The guys came out ready to play — one of our best periods of the year. Winkler capitalized on limited chances in the second, but we responded in the third and finished the job.”
The Canucks are trying to win only their second Centennial Cup.
Their other national title was earned in 1995.
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