There is one game left to decide it all in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League as the London Nationals will square off against the Waterloo Siskins on Wednesday night.
Although each team has won three games, the Nationals have yet to hold a series lead and, at one point, trailed 2-0 in the series.
The Nationals are coming off a decisive Game 6 win in Waterloo on Sunday night to force a seventh and final game in the playoff series.
“They were excited about the challenge with their back against the wall. As much as we have an opportunity to win a championship Wednesday night, our backs are still against the wall because there’s no tomorrow, there’s no next game,” said head coach and general manager Pat Powers.
Playing in separate conferences, the Siskins and Nationals didn’t meet once during the regular season, but with six games played between the two teams over a stretch of 11 days, they are more than familiar with each other now.
“We have two very offensive teams that kind of go at it. It just kind of seems whoever catches the breaks at the right times are the ones who score goals,” said Powers.
“We both have mature teams, veteran teams; we can both play gritty games or up-tempo and skilled. Both teams have a good power play — I think we’re both very evenly matched teams.”
Christian Polillo has led the Nationals in playoff scoring, adding four goals and eight points in the team’s six games against the Siskins. Londoner George Diaco has an impressive post-season as well with 11 goals and 29 points. Early this season, 17-year-old Diaco signed with the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, the team that drafted him in the 2018 priority selection.
Just under 1,000 fans took in Game 5 at the Western Fair Sports Centre on Saturday night, and another big crowd is expected Wednesday. Powers says it will be a great opportunity for the players to do something special on a big stage.
“It definitely gives them that idea that everything they worked for is getting noticed. It motivates the group and pushes them to want to do bigger and better things,” said Powers, who adds that at this point in their playoff run, there is an all-or-nothing mentality.
“You get past the point of no return, where anything less than a championship seems like a failure,” he said.
London won its first and only Sutherland Cup in 2013, beating the Cambridge Winter Hawks 4-2 in Game 7. That win came on home ice after a Game 6 win in Cambridge to extend the series.
As far as a pregame message before the high-pressure Game 7, Powers says it’s important for the guys to stay relaxed and play their game.
“We just want the guys to go out and have fun and enjoy the moment, and I think if we’re doing that, we aren’t playing full of stress and anxiety,” he said.
London last played in the Sutherland Cup finals in 2017, when they lost to the Elmira Sugar Kings.
Win or lose, the Nationals’ 2018-19 season will officially come to an end Wednesday night, but the 2019-20 season will unofficially begin just days later as the team holds its rookie camp on May 11 and 12.