Sheridan Hawks Face Helena In NA3HL Frontier Division Playoff Finals

The NA3HL Frontier Division Finals start on Wednesday, March 18th, as the Sheridan Hawks visit Helena, for Game 1 of their best 2-out-of-3 game series.

Sheridan won the regular season head-to-head series 4-2, but the opposition are the 4-time defending Frontier Division Champs.

Head Coach J.J. Santagata says when the Hawks have had their consistency issues, sometimes it’s because the players were not always motivated.

He adds that excuse is not going to work this time.

“One thing that we’ve noticed this year is our first periods haven’t been great. It almost seems like we have to get punched in the face a little bit to wake up and be like, ‘Man, we’ve got to take this a little bit more serious,’ and that was kind of the same story for us Wednesday and Friday vs. Badlands. We got punched in the mouth the first and second period and 2 really great third periods. I told these guys that against a team like Helena that’s been here before, they have guys that have been in the stands, they’ve been here for 4 or 5 years in a row now, they’re not going to just let you crawl back into games. You’re going to have to really come out quick and from the start. You’re in a division final game, there is no excuses to start slow or not be motivated to play. Right now, it’s do or die time.”

The puck drops in Helena at 7:05pm.

Game 2 and if needed Game 3 will be played on Friday and Saturday respectively in Sheridan.

Start times for both games are scheduled for 7:30pm.

The winner advances to the Fraser Cup tournament next week in St. Louis.

There’s a little more pressure for various teams to win their division finals this time.

In past years, the 5 division winners, plus 1 wildcard team would get to compete for the Fraser Cup.

Now there are 6 divisions, meaning the wild card spot has been eliminated.