The Nelson Leafs shut out the Castlegar Rebels 1-0 on Friday night to take the first-round KIJHL playoff series four games to two.
The first two periods ended in a scoreless draw, and it looked as if the Rebels and Leafs might be headed into overtime yet again, but at 12:17 in the third, the Leafs’ Kyle Rosolowski found the net, and the Rebels scrambled to tie the game right to the final whistle.
With less than two minutes left to play, Rebels goalie Chandler Billinghurst was pulled from the net for an extra attacker, but with 53 seconds left Everett Hicks was sent to the penalty box for goaltender interference, and Billinghurst was sent back in. Less than 20 seconds later he was pulled again as the Leafs’ Sawyer Hunt took a penalty for slashing, but the man advantage wasn’t enough to help the Rebels find their way past Leafs’ goalie Devin Allen — as they did in the final seconds of game one — and the Rebels’ playoff run was cut short.
Rebels head coach and general manager Bill Rotheisler credited the Leafs' win to their playing superior defense.
“We allowed very few goals against, very few chances against. We had excellent goaltending. But there was just one team that happened to be a little bit better defensively and it just happened to be the one we were playing,” he said.
He also credited the Leafs’ goalie Devin Allen, who for his part was excited about his team’s win following the game.
“Happy to get the win and happy to be with all my 22 brothers and it should be fun,” he said of the upcoming series for the division championship.
Going into the game, the Rebels could count at least two blessings. Daneel Lategan — who was injured in Thursday night’s game and who Rotheisler thought would be out — was actually able to play.
“I mentioned we were going to get him assessed in the morning and … we were shocked, we were very surprised, but we went through all the precautionary measures, had him checked out, and he got the green light,” explained Rotheisler.
And Ed Lindsey, who injured his shoulder during the regular season and had been out since, was also able to play on Friday.
“I thought he was amazing. I thought … he made a tremendous impact in the game and created a lot of chances,” said Rotheisler.
Asked how he felt about the series overall, the coach said, “It’s a series that everyone is going to remember. It was a great series. And I don’t want to take anything away from Nelson. Nelson certainly surprised us. They played hard. The protected the front of their net. For the first couple of games, we were getting shots, but it was mostly from the outside and they did a great job, like I said before, of boxing our guys out and keeping guys to the outside, and playing us heavy.”
The Rebels were 6-2 against the Leafs in the regular season, and though the Rebels knew they were a capable team, they were ultimately surprised by the way the Leafs played in the playoffs.
“We knew they have a lot of good players. They’ve had their moments in the year where they’ve strung together some good wins against some good teams, so we knew they certainly had the potential to do that but were we surprised with how good they were defensively? Yes, absolutely,” said Rotheisler.
The Rebels season is over, but the Leafs will now move on to face the Beaver Valley Nitehawks, who defeated the Grand Forks Border Bruins 4-0 in their first playoff series.
Asked how he felt about going up against the Nitehawks, Allen said, “I’ve actually had a lot of success against them. You know I’m only 1-2 and, I know [Nitehawks’ goalie] Tallon [Kramer] really well, he knows me, we know what each other are like, and it’s going to be a fun battle.”