The season series may indicate that the Langley Knights should be heavy favourites, but head coach John Craighead knows his opponent is playing some of their best hockey in the season's second half.
The Knights won five of six games against the Mission City Outlaws.
"They have come together of late," Craighead warned about his team's upcoming playoff opponent in the junior B PJHL's Harold Brittain Division best-of-seven semifinals series.
"They are healthy and firing on all cylinders. Their top guys are scoring and their grinders are grinding."
The Knights (23-19-1-1, 48 points)are the second seed, three points better than the Outlaws (21-20-1-2, 45 points).
Both teams enter the post-season 5-5 in their past 10 games, but Langley is going to have to make sure they take advantage of home-ice advantage at the George Preston Recreation Centre as the Outlaws have won their past 10 home games at the Mission Leisure Centre.
The Outlaws struggled for much of the first half the season, including going 2-9-1 on home ice.
The team is led by Bryce Pisiak, who scored 43 goals to lead the entire PJHL. He was second in points with 64.
He was just one of two Outlaws players to score 19 goals or more. By comparison, the Knights have six players with at least 17 goals and three with 20 or more.
Levi De Waal led the team in points with 61, including 20 goals. The team's leading goal scorer was Carson Rose, who potted 35 goals and finished with 60 points.
Colin Catchpole (23 goals), Dylan McCann (19 goals), Jackson Surbey (18 goals) and Tristan Craighead (17 goals) round out a balanced Knights squad which was second in the league with 4.4 goals per game.
"One of our strengths is that we have four lines we have rolled all season and we had big goals from all four," Craighead said.
The Knights also play a more wide-open style with chances for both teams, and that also leaves them with the second-highest goals against average at 4.32 goals per game. The Outlaws are fourth in goals for (3.93) and also have the fourth-lowest goals against (3.64).
Like many playoff series, special teams will be a factor and both teams have top-four power plays — Mission City is second at 22.55 per cent and Langley is fourth at 21.18 per cent — and two of the lower-ranked penalty kills, with the Outlaws killing off 80.08 per cent of their short-handed situations and the Knights at 78.71 per cent.
However, the Knights are the league's most dangerous team when it comes to scoring short-handed as they have popped in a dozen goals while a man down. Carson Rose has six of those himself, while no other team has more than four short-handed goals.
"We play a very aggressive type of specialty teams," Craighead said, explaining that at the junior B level, power plays can be a bit sloppy so he wants his team to focus on pressure the puck instead of just trying to prevent a goal.
And if the Knights PK can turn the puck over, they have the green light to go on the attack.
"We have some guys that can skate and thrive on that."
Craighead said his players — who don't have much post-season experience after a couple of down seasons when the team was in North Delta — are excited to get going.
While Langley is the higher seed, the series will actually get underway in Mission for game one on Tuesday (Feb. 17).
Games two and three will be Feb. 19 and 20 at the George Preston Recreation Centre and game four will be back in Mission on Feb. 21 (Saturday).
If necessary, game five would be in Langley on Feb. 23, games six in Mission on Feb. 24 and a seventh and deciding game would be back in Langley on Feb. 26.
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The other Harold Brittain semifinal series pits top-seed Aldergrove Kodiaks against the Abbotsford Pilots.
The Kodiaks led the division with a 22-14-2-6 record for 52 points while the Pilots were fourth at 21-21-0-2 and 44 points.