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Chill looking for redemption in post season

THUNDER BAY – A year ago, the Thunder Bay Chill thought they had the first-round upset in hand.
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Thunder Bay Chill's Pedro Adan. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY – A year ago, the Thunder Bay Chill thought they had the first-round upset in hand.

Up 2-0 over the regular-season champion Michigan Bucks – on Michigan’s home turf nonetheless – the Chill collapsed in the second half and were sent packing from the playoffs, falling 3-2 in their Central Conference Championship opener.

Today the Chill will have an opportunity for redemption.

The scenario is much the same. The Bucks, who lost in Round 2 to Kitchener-Waterloo in 2016, are once again the Premier Development League’s best team heading into the postseason, posting a 12-2-0 record while scoring 45 times in 14 outings, allowing just seven goals.
“I don’t know if we can call this revenge,” said forward Sullivan Silva, back to his most valuable player form with 11 goals for the Chill this season.

“It’s an important game. It’s maybe two years in a row that I go there and I end up losing games. Hopefully it’s going to be different this time. We trust the players that are returning and also the new players. We have a good squad. Everybody’s confident, everybody’s happy.”
It’s a defence-first mentality Thunder Bay must bring with them south of the border.

The Chill, while still the lowest-scoring of the four teams vying for the conference crown, haven’t had trouble putting the ball into the net.
It’s the other end of the pitch that’s posed problems.

Late-game goals cost them wins against Chicago, Des Moines and Kokomo and just last week they allowed three first-half goals against St. Louis and had to rally in the second half to earn a point that could have been the difference between making the playoffs and being eliminated.

“We know we never go out to the field and don’t score a goal,”  said coach Gio Petraglia.

“It happened once against Des Moines, but we were playing nine against 11 for the whole game. We always score every time we play … I believe if we have a better tactical game, the individual we have up top who can win us the game.”

Silva said it starts from the forwards back.

“We’ve got to get everyone behind the ball and stay organized and compact and don’t concede any goals. It’s not only the defenders, but everybody on the pitch,” he said.

English defender John Stojcevski said it all begins in practice.

And keep it simple, he added.

“We’re going to redeem ourselves,” he said.

“We’ll just close it up on defence and not let them get through. It starts from here. We’ve got three more days to work on it before we head over to Michigan.”

Coach Gio Petraglia says they know it won’t be easy getting through the weekend – with either defending champion Kitchener-Waterloo or Heartland Division champion Des Moines awaiting the winner of the Chill/Bucks match.

Game time in Pontiac, Mich. is 7:30 p.m. Friday night.

 



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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