The Chatham Maroons will open the playoffs with home-ice advantage this year, but they know they won't be able to take anything for granted.
The Maroons, who finished the 2018-2019 regular season as the third seed in the GOJHL's Western Conference, will open their playoff run against the sixth-ranked Komoka Kings Thursday night with a home game in Chatham.
The three vs. six matchup is a familiar one for Chatham, having faced the LaSalle Vipers in the same seeded matchup in the first round of the 2018 playoffs. At that time, though, the sixth-seeded Maroons were the underdogs, pulling off the upset against the third-ranked Vipers in a hard-fought seven-game series.
The head coach for the 2018 Maroons squad also knows what it takes to win when the odds are against you -- Ron Horvat, who's now coaching the Kings, led Chatham to that first-round upset win last year. He'll start the first-round series in the visitors' room again, but this time, it'll be at Memorial Arena -- in a building where he was home during playoff runs in 2017 and 2018.
The Maroons have the advantage over the Kings when it comes to their head-to-head record during the regular season, with four wins, one tie, and one loss against Komoka. Chatham pulled off two of those wins and the draw at home while dropping just one game on the road at the Komoka Wellness Centre.
Chatham also has the upper hand when it comes to experience -- there are nine overagers on the Maroons who are all making their final Jr. B hockey playoff runs while the Kings have none. Chatham's overagers also boast a lot of playoff experience -- three of them (Nolan Gardiner, Sean O'Brien, and Eddie Schulz) all advanced to the Sutherland Cup Final in 2018 with the Caledonia Corvairs.
That playoff experience is something Maroons forward Justin Badour knows the team will be able to draw on.
"We've got a lot of experience... those guys (Gardiner, O'Brien, Schulz) all went to the finals, they know what it takes to win and hopefully they can guide the ship," said Badour. "It's just a different atmosphere and every game matters -- especially when you're an overager... it's going to be a fun playoff and hopefully, we end up bringing a championship home to Chatham."
The Maroons come into Thursday night's game riding a five-game undefeated streak (four wins, one tie) while the Kings have lost three of their last five games.
You can hear Thursday night's game on Country 92.9FM/AM 630 CFCO or by clicking here. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.