A lengthy winless streak will need to be snapped for the Valley West Hawks to have any success in the BC Hockey Major Midget League playoffs.
Winless in six games played over the last three weeks of the season, the Hawks slipped to sixth place in the final standings with an 18-14-78 (won-lost-tied) record.
They will now face the third-place Vancouver Chiefs (25-10-5) in a best-of-three quarterfinal series.
Valley West had been challenging for a top four placing and home ice advantage in the playoffs in early February, but two ties and four losses over their final six games saw the team plunge from near the front to the middle of the pack.
The Hawks lost twice last weekend, falling 3-2 and 5-3 on the road to the North Island Silvertips.
Needing just one win on Vancouver Island to climb past the idle Vancouver Canadians into fifth place, Valley West struggled in both games. Down 2-0 in the second period Saturday in Nanaimo, the Hawks pulled even when Surrey’s Jeff Stewart scored midway through the second period then set up White Rock’s Ben Evanish for tying goal four minutes later.
The Silvertips regained the lead at 3-2 after 40 minutes, and held on through a scoreless third period.
The Hawks again fell behind early in Sunday’s rematch in Courtenay, and three goals from Stewart wasn’t enough to prevent a second straight loss.
Valley West will get a boost for the postseason. They have been without leading scorer James Malm and head coach Jessie Leung for the past two weeks. Both were with Team BC at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George, and for Malm, his absence has cost him a league scoring title.
He was overtaken by Owen Seidel of the Vancouver Canadians, who with 17 goals and 50 assists edged Malm by one point as top scorer. Malm, from Langley, totalled 20 goals and 66 points despite playing just 31 games, seven fewer than Seidel.
The Hawks’ winless streak began Feb. 14-15 when they dropped two games against the Chiefs by scores of 11-5 and 7-2. Last November, Valley West swept a two-game series from the Chiefs by scores of 4-1- and 4-3.
Their quarterfinal series begins with two games at the Port Coquitlam Recreation Complex at 5 p.m. Saturday and again at noon Sunday. If a third game is necessary, it will be played at 6 p.m. Monday night at the Poirier Sports and Leisure Centre in Coquitlam.