The Northern Capitals have a new wrinkle in store for the Thompson-Okanagan Lakers.
The Capitals have juggled their forward lines for this weekend's playoff series to try spark a sputtering offence which produced just 20 goals in their last nine B.C. Female Midget Triple-A Hockey League regular season games.
Scoring at a pace of just over two goals a game, the Capitals relied more on defence to keep them on the winning of the ledger in the last third of the season.
They clinched second place with a 21-6-3 record which
guaranteed a first-round playoff bye.
But to repeat as league champions and add to their accomplishments after winning the Mac's Tournament in Calgary in January, Capitals head coach Mario Desjardins wants all three forward lines to produce and has broken up his most productive trio - Sage Desjardins, Marissa Nichol and Taylor Beck.
"I don't know if it's the right time of year to do it but I have changed my lines around," said Mario Desjardins. "I am looking for a bit more balance and more contributions from other players. We seem to be getting most of the scoring out of Sage and Marissa right now and I need more secondary scoring from other lines."
The Lakers and Capitals meet tonight at 6:15 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena in the first of best-of-three semifinal series. Game 2 is set for Saturday at 3:15 p.m. at Kin 2, with a third-and-deciding game, if needed, set for Sunday at 1:30 a.m., also at Kin 2.
This season, Sage Desjardins led the Capitals with 17 goals 19 assists and 36 points, second only to league scoring champion Elexa Pakozdy of the Greater Vancouver Comets ( 23-19-42). The Lakers' biggest offensive threat is just-turned 17-year-old forward Jenna Fletcher (18-8-26), who finished tied in points for third in the scoring race with Nichol (8-18-36).
Desjardins remains on the top line, centring Nichol and right wing Hunter Mosher. The Capitals' second line consists of Taylor Back at centre with left wing Mckenzie Muir and Myah Bowal. Caily Mellott is the pivot on the third line with Jordan Shanks and Katie Young. None of those combinations have played together this season.
"All I know is I can always go back to what I know was working," laughed coach Desjardins. "I'm shooting to score three goals a game and if we can do that I think we can win 95 per cent of our games, with the goaltending we're getting out of Kelsey Roberts right now."
The teams last met on Prince George ice in January, where the Capitals won the first two games of the series, 4-0 and 1-0. The teams tied 1-1 in the final game of the set. Back in October in Vernon, the teams each won games decided by one goal and tied the other game.
"They've all been pretty close game so I do expect a good series this weekend against the Lakers," said coach Desjardins.
"Both of their goalies (Sydney Carter and Kendra Woodland) are pretty solid. They like to collapse inside their zone so getting to the net has been a bit of challenge. Most of their goals have been coming from Fletcher.
"We have dominated the offensive zone more so than other teams have dominated our zone, so we have to keep that up, keep them more to the outside and limit their scoring chances. When you get into playoffs, sometimes one goal is all you need to win and I wouldn't doubt if we actually get into an overtime situation this weekend."
The Capitals are healthy and well-rested, having had last weekend to practice while the third-place Lakers (15-9-6) eliminated the last-place Kootenay Ice (3-26-1) in a two-game series, winning 1-0 and 3-0.
The winner takes on the winner of this weekend's Grater Vancouver Comets-Vancouver Island Seals best-of-three series in the league final in Richmond. The team with the best regular season record will host the final series, also a best-of-three, next weekend.
