Can the Eskis knock off the Rock?
This one has the makings of a nasty, intense playoff series — the small-town Iroquois Falls Eskis up against their neighbours, the bigger-market Timmins Rock.
The two Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League teams will meet in a best-of-three, Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, East Division preliminary series that begins this weekend.
The winner of the short set will advance to an East Division semi-final against the first-place Cochrane Crunch.
There is no shortage of bad blood between fans in Iroquois Falls and Timmins.
Before setting up shop in Timmins as the Rock this season, the franchise was based in Iroquois Falls for many years and overseen by president Scott Marshall and coach-general manager Paul Gagne.
But at the end of last season, Marshall and Gagne scooted off to Timmins from Iroquois Falls and temporarily left their hometown without a team.
But Iroquois Falls was not without an NOJHL team for long as the Mattawa Blackhawks and owner Allan Donnan relocated to the tidy northeastern Ontario town for this season.
Heading into the potential grudge match of a series, Timmins is heavily favoured to defeat Iroquois Falls, the fourth-place Rock having finished 29 points ahead of the fifth-place Eskis during the regular season.
So while an Iroquois Falls upset of Timmins is unlikely, it sure would make for a sweet story if the Eskis could knock the Rock from the playoffs.
Out of the two first round series, this has the most potential for an upset.
All depending on who gets the superior goaltending. In my opinion.
There are going to some surprises this play-off. Don’t know who, because then it wouldn’t be a surprise!
Only surprise will be if the Crunch and Miners don’t meet in the East finals.
Wont be any surprise to me to see the Voodoos instead of Liekland Lake.