CAHL Playoff Preview

The Carleton Adult Hockey League 2024 playoffs are set to begin tonight at 8pm as the Presidents Trophy winning Wings take on the Whalers.

In what many are predicting to be a nasty game, both teams are focusing on winning the game rather than any animosity stemming from the regular season.

“We know we’ve had a few penalty filled games against them, but we’re not thinking about that now, we’re just focused on winning the game. We know it’s gonna be tough, they have a great team over there, but in our room we are a confident we can beat them,” said Whalers leading scorer Matt Prescott.

Even though on paper this looks like an easy win for the first place Wings, they actually tied the season series against the Whalers 1-1-1.

“We know it’s not gonna be an easy game, they always play us tough,” said Wings goalie Alec Casey. “But if we play our game and stick to the game plan, I’m confident we can beat them.”

Casey turned in another Vezina quality season going 10-3-2 with a 1.93 GAA and 3 shutouts.

There was also some great news for the future of the Wings this year as rookie defenseman Pat Liotti and forward Connor O’Grady didn’t look out of place at all and are sure to be big pieces of the Wings going forward.

“It’s a credit to our GM honestly, he keeps going out and finding these great players who other teams may have overlooked due to their age or injuries,” said captain Matt Deline.

Liotti’s career was rumoured to be over after he was diagnosed with Salmon Arm, but after seeing a specialist and putting in some work at the gym, he was able to fully recover.

The Wings will have a bit of a break between games one and two which the team is hoping gives them time to perfect their overload powerplay. Full playoff schedule is below: