Mantha shows coaching mettle
A wild weekend ended the 2014-2015 North American Hockey League regular season in stunning fashion.
Desperately needing to sweep two road games from the Soo Eagles and just as desperately needing the Johnstown Tomahawks to lose a home-and-home series with the Keystone Ice Miners to make the playoffs, the Michigan Warriors got all of that.
Good-old-school coach Moe Mantha and his relentless Warriors staged a pair of come-from-behind, shootout victories at the Soo while Keystone took two from Johnstown that sidelined the Tomahawks and vaulted the Ice Miners past the Eagles into second place and home-ice advantage in the first round of their playoff series.
When the ice had settled following the conclusion of the regular season, Keystone had overtaken the Soo by one point for second place and Michigan had moved past Johnstown by one point for the fourth-and-final playoff spot in the North Division.
It was an improbable finish to the regular season for Michigan, which won eight of its final nine games — six by one goal — to make the playoffs.
Against all odds, the Warriors — who have been sold and will relocate elsewhere in 2015-2016 after five seasons in Flint — stared straight at adversity and overcame it, which is a credit to the coaching savvy and leadership of the 54-year old Mantha, a former Ontario Hockey League defenceman with the erstwhile Toronto Marlies who went on to play in close to 700 National Hockey League games with several teams.
To be sure, Mantha — who grew up in the northeastern Ontario town of Sturgeon Falls — has made a strong case for his coaching abilities with the NAHL Warriors over five years with two North Division titles and Robertson Cup championship appearances among four trips to the playoffs.
The first round of this season’s best-of-five North Division playoffs begins on April 10.
The Warriors have the task of facing the powerful, first-place Janesville Jets, who topped the entire, 24-team NAHL with 100 points — 41 more than Michigan.
The other North Division series will feature Keystone and the Soo, with the Ice Miners having the aforementioned home-ice advantage.
For the Eagles to win, they will have to forget about squandering second place by losing back-to-back home games to Michigan on the final weekend of the regular season and concentrate on Keystone.
To be sure, the Eagles are better than what they showed by winning only one of their final five games of the regular season that dropped them from second place into third.
The Soo-Keystone series has the makings of being a goaltenders duel.
As the Eagles have veteran Chad Catt as the starter with rookie Jack Berry in capable reserve, the Ice Miners have a 1-2 tandem of Alex Blankenburg and Nick Kossoff, who is a recruit of the Division 1, Lake Superior State University Lakers.
we will miss Moe and the Warriors.