The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team are out of the Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) playoffs, but still have a chance to advance to the provincial final.

The Cyclones lost their third straight game in a best-of-five LLHL semi-final series 6-4 to the LeRoy Braves last Tuesday at the LeRoy Rink nullifying their opportunity to repeat as league champions this year. The Cyclones still are the defending LLHL champions, for another few weeks at least, until the new crown is handed to either LeRoy, Watrous or Lanigan later this month.

“We got off to a bad start and got down early (to the Braves),” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “Then we worked our way back and had a lot of chances to score, but just couldn’t.”

The Braves stepped up the pressure early on the Cyclones jumping up to a 4-0 lead by the 14-minute mark of the first period, but Davidson clawed back. At the end of the first, the score was 5-1. At the end of the second, it was 5-3, but once again this season a short bench for Davidson sealed their doom in the third.

“We only had 12 guys, eight forwards and four defence,” said Shaw. “For what we had, we played well. They had a full lineup. That’s pretty tough in playoffs. You can get away with a short bench in league games the odd time, but in playoffs it’s a lot tougher.”

The lack of a full lineup was not the case in the Cyclones first game of their provincial “C” south final against the Radville Nationals March 2 at the Davidson Rink. Davidson matched the swift-skating Nats throughout the match-up coming out on top with a 4-3 win.

Shaw said the Nats caught them off guard scoring in the first minute of the opening period, but the Cyclones stood up and “worked hard” to gut out the win.

“It was a tough game,” he said. “They’re a good team. When you get down to the last four teams in provincials, they are all going to be decent.”

Davidson had to win another this past weekend either March 8 in Radville or March 10 at Davidson to take the best-of-three provincial series and move on to the provincial finals to be played later this month against Hudson Bay.

Results of Friday and Sunday night’s games against the Nats were unavailable at press time.