Sudbury Wolves head coach Dave Matsos knows the playoffs are a different animal, but believes if his Pack play the way they’re capable of, results will follow.
“My biggest concern is just our team to be honest,” said Matsos. “Oshawa plays a pretty clean game, they play a north-south, physical style but so do we. It’s going to come down to detail and our guys just playing clean at the blues, our game is our game and we know what we have to do to be successful.”
Sudbury won three straight games heading into the playoffs, and split the season series with Oshawa this season 2-2, but will be the underdogs heading into their first playoff series in three seasons.
“We’re going to humbly embrace that underdog role, they finished third we finished sixth, anything can happen,” said Matsos.
Telling you the Wolves split the season series and also telling you they were only outscored 13-12 in those games are important, but are just stats, some would argue they matter going into the playoffs, some will say to throw them out the window.
The two teams haven’t met since Nov. 13 and a lot has changed since then.
Oshawa traded away Anthony Cirelli and Mitchell Vande Sompell, but have some experience in Allan McShane, Jack Studnicka, Serron Noel and Danil Antropov.
Changes aside, the Wolves believe it will come down to game plan, confidence and preparation.
“Two weeks ago we didn’t know if we were going to make the playoffs or not and then all of a sudden we catch a bit of a groove again and fall into sixth place and I think that sort of confidence is good going into the playoffs. We know we have our hands full with the Oshawa Generals, they’ve recently won a Memorial Cup, they’ve got guys on their team that have won, we understand that, but this is about us,” said Matsos.
“I think we’re going to be ready and well prepared, against them we know what’s coming and we just got to match that and be better. We need our best game from everyone it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, but if everyone’s playing their best I don’t think there’s a team that can stop us,” said Macauley Carson.
“I think we match up well, they play a structured style but that’s good for us, we can read off that and figure out what they’re doing beforehand. When we play our gritty style we’re tough to beat,” said Michael Pezzetta.”
Michael Pezzetta has played 179 games for the Wolves without a playoff appearance until now and he is ready to give everything he has.
“Put that little bit extra into everything and when you have 22 guys doing that, it makes a big difference,” said Pezzetta.
The series may come down to goaltending, overage goalie Jeremy Brodeur leads the way for the Generals and Jake McGrath, who has been hot of late, leads the Wolves.
The Wolves know playing their game will give them an edge, but getting away from their game could be costly.
“Every mistake is amplified 10 times, so I think just playing simple, if we start getting away from that I think that’s when we’ll have troubles. If we play the way we can, I think Oshawa’s going to have trouble handling us,” said Carson.
All of that aside, perhaps the biggest question when it comes to playoffs and getting ready is, who will grow the best facial hair?
“I don’t know, Yakimowicz has got a horrible mustache going right now, which I love. My dad always told me never trust a man with a mustache and I looked at Yak the other day, I said 'I can’t trust you anymore',” said Matsos.
"These guys are having fun with their haircuts and their playoff beards, that’s just part of the process and that’s the fun of being in the playoffs.”
Carson and Pezzetta took the right angle, they will leave the facial hair to the vets and have some fun with the hair cuts.
“Playoff beard, we have to give that to Yak(Yakimowicz) or Sandy(Sanvido), they’ve got some pretty full beards and then we’ll have a couple guys who will have some scruff going. I think we’re going more for playoff haircuts here, we have some guys with some pretty funky haircuts going,” said Pezzetta.
“Maybe Yakimowicz, he’s got the handle bars, it’s nice to have that on my right, scares the other guys a bit,” said Carson.
The Wolves leave for Oshawa Thursday and will face a schedule that looks like this:
Game 1, Fri, Mar 24 at Oshawa – 7:35 p.m.
Game 2, Sun, Mar 26 at Oshawa – 6:05 p.m.
Game 3, Tues, Mar 28 at Sudbury – 7 p.m.
Game 4, Thurs, Mar 30 at Sudbury – 7 p.m.
Game 5, Fri, Mar 31 at Oshawa – 7:35 p.m.*
Game 6, Sun, Apr 2 at Sudbury – 7 p.m.*
Game 7, Tues, Apr 4 at Oshawa – 7:05 p.m.*
*if necessary
