Coach Why do you think that Creston, who finished 30 points behind and scored almost 100 less goals in the regular season ,was able to put up such a battle with your team in round 2.– Thomas Abenante was named as the player of the Creston series.

Verner – “Creston’s team was built for the playoffs and probably in their mind they underachieved during the regular season. When Creston played tough meaningful games they played well. Dropping games to teams below them in the standings early in the year hurt their regular season stats. We played them 8 games during the season and they beat us 3 games in a row. 3 of the 5 games we won were by 1 goal and the two lopsided games saw them play without several of their key players.

Rider News – Scott Morisseau lost his stick but still made some heroic shot blocks in the second period  on a penalty kill in game seven. What did that do for your bench when a top scorer sacrifices like that.?

Verner  – “Scott came to play. It was very difficult for him this series as he had to play against one of the top “D” men in the league most shifts. He scored some big goals and made some great passes. The two shots he blocked in the PK in my mind changed the game and won the series for us. When his teammates saw him sacrifice the way he did to block a shot with his teeth and not miss a shift I think it had a great effect on our club”.

Rider News – You named Thomas Abenante as the player of the series and he was outstanding up front but on “D” Jeff Zmurchyk was a rock game in and game out.

Verner – Thomas had a great series. Pursued the puck very well and competed everywhere. Thomas and Jeff were the hardest working guys on the ice each and every shift Zmurchyk is our anchor on the back and played his best game in game 7.”

Rider News – How do you think you match up vs Castlegar ?

Should be a great series. They work extremely hard and have some real high end skill players. I think if we can compete the way we competed in game 7 against Creston we will be a hard team to beat.