Eston felled by Outlook in first playoff round

By Jordan Parker

The Eston Ramblers find themselves on the outside looking in for the next round of the Saskatchewan Valley Hockey League playoffs.

After a triumphant 3-2 first game win against the Outlook Ice Hawks, they dropped two consecutive games and were eliminated from second round contention.

“It really stung, and it took a few days to get over it,” said coach Justin Oliphant. The team lost 5-2 and 5-3. During their bye week, they’ll prepare for provincial action against Kindersley.

“We just need to regroup, because we have a big series coming. We need to get up and get ready for our first game back the 21st.”

Oliphant says there were a number of reasons why the team had some difficulties following their big win.

“We really ran into some penalty trouble,” said Oliphant of the February 6 game two, played in Outlook at the Jim Coock Centre.

Steven Turner ended up in the box for four minutes, and both Cam Oliphant and Carter Berg had two minutes each.

“We just had a loss of momentum in the second period and couldn’t recover,” he said, though assistant captain B.J. Somerville and Brandon Kuse both found the back of the net.

The third game had an undesirable outcome for another reason. On February 9, the 5-3 loss came, in part, due to some injury issues among defensemen.

“Brandon Kuse and Matt Pufahl are day-to-day, but they got hurt in the first period of that game,” he said.

“Our bench was short and we just ran out of gas. It was a good game overall, and we were up 3-2 going into the third. But we ran out of steam and couldn’t recover.”

Jesse Ismond nabbed a pair of goals, and Jesse Duchscherer also got one. Now, Oliphant is planning a road trip to scope out their competition.

“I haven’t seen Kindersley play in a long time, and this weekend I’d like to see them. I want to go do a scouting report,” he said.

“I know they’ve got some really good guys, like Shayne Neigum. The brothers David and Darian Dziurzynski, and even Steve MacIntyre could provide a few big hits.”

For Oliphant, he just wants to get back on track and see the team work hard.

“We played good last game, we just need to build off of it. We can play the same type of game, and we should be fine,” he said.

Forward Cam Oliphant – cousin of coach Justin – wasn’t happy with game two, but did see some things to bring with them from the third game, despite elimination.

“Sunday we couldn’t score on our chance, but Wednesday we had some guys sick and away,” he said. “We needed everyone to win. We lost some key ingredients in the first and had some bad luck. We just didn’t have the forces we needed to compete.”

“They have two lines that can score, one that works hard, and great defence. We played a good game, but they pushed hard.”

There are intangibles that need to happen, and the team couldn’t have worked on them in practice.

“There are certain things that just need to go right for you in the playoffs. You need bounces, and the luck wasn’t on our side,” he said. “That’s just hockey sometimes. We didn’t get the breaks, and we lost against a good team.”

For Oliphant, they just need to get back to what they do best when they play provincials against Kindersley.

“We just need to get back to work. Provincials is another beast. We should take the positives out of the first round,” he said.

“We can take the good things, the things we need to work on, and put our best food forward. It will be a series with lots of fans, and will be fast-paced.”