The Brooks Bandits kick off the British Columbia Hockey League playoffs Friday night at home.
The first round opponent is the West Kelowna Warriors, a team the Bandits have defeated in three of their four meetings this season.
The Bandits come into the series as the second place team in the Interior Division, the Warriors seventh.
Bandits assistant coach Luke Israel said the Warriors are a good team.
“They’re definitely not a group that we can take lightly. They’ve shown that they can come into our building and take points and games off of us,” Israel said.
“We need to be ready to go. They’ve got some high-end forwards and some good D that can break guys down and make plays and produce points,” he added.
“Their power play has been clicking as of recently. It’s going to be a fun series.”
The Bandits come into the series having won seven of nine games in the month of March, finishing the season with the second best record in the entire B-C-H-L.
Giving up the least goals in the league during the regular season has been helped by netminders Chris Quizi, and Zach Zahara, who came onto the team after a pair of Bandits netminders departed for major junior opportunities.
Israel says to be successful in the playoffs the Bandits will need to have relentless compete.
“We’re gonna need to work for every inch. It’s a reminder to ourselves that yes, this team and organization has had a storied past but we’re hunting a trophy that’s never been raised above our heads before,” Israel said.
“A reminder for us every day is we’re chasing something that no Brooks Bandits ever done before and the fact that we have the opportunity to be a group that could be the first one to do it for this organization is really meaningful for us.”
Game one at the Centennial Regional Arena goes Friday, with game two also in Brooks on Saturday.
Puck drops on both games at 7 p.m.
The series then shifts to West Kelowna for games three and four on Tuesday and Wednesday.
