Clippers coach Colin Birkas sees many similarities to between this year's team and the one that won a Coastal Conference championship last season.  Nanaimo is in first place in the conference with a  20-4 record  (Gary Dorland)

By Dan Marshall

Fine Tuning

VIDEO: Clippers coach pleased with results, says team still needs to grow

Dec 7, 2022 | 9:29 AM

NANAIMO — The Clippers are in first place in the Coastal Division and they’ve only lost four games all season but coach Colin Birkas is always looking for areas to improve.

“Because of a good goaltending performance here or an offensive explosion there we’ve gotten the two points pretty much every night.”

While the Clippers can’t go up in the division standings Birkas said the team has certainly not reached its peak.

“We as coaches aren’t going to tip our hand but there are two areas of concern for us right now. For us to take that next step as a group we’ve identified those areas and we just need to work on them.”

The 2021-22 Clippers won the Coastal Conference playoff banner and finished just a handful of points our of first in the regular season.

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Birkas said there are notable similarities between last year’s team and the current roster.

I’m seeing some of the same trends developing here from the playoff run. I guess the major difference is earlier in the year we have a belief in ourselves. We’ve played everybody in the conference and we’ve beaten everybody in the conference.”

The Clippers latest weekend saw the club win a defensive battle 3-1 over the Chilliwack Chiefs and then put their offense on display in a 7-3 victory against the Merritt Centennials.

There are only four games left before Nanaimo goes on a 13 day Christmas Break.

“We’re trying to get as many points as we can right now just in case we run into trouble in the second half of the year,” Birkas said.

Nanaimo will be down a couple of key players up front with injuries to Nick Sajevic and Rylan Yates but the coach sees that as an opportunity for other players take on a bigger role.

“You want all the weapons on your roster available to you but I guess in the long run it’s a good experience. Everybody’s playing, everybody’s contributing and hopefully at one point we’ll have all of our healthy players and coaches will have to make tough decisions.”

CLIP NOTES:

Forward Mike Murtagh has been given an honourable mention for the BCHL three stars of the week. He had three goals and an assist in two games.

Veteran Jake Hewitt is on a seven game point streak with 11 points in that span. The second year Clipper enters the week sixth in BCHL scoring.

The Clippers play their final road game before the Christmas break on Friday Dec. 9 in Alberni Valley. Then they’ll wrap up with home games against Coquitlam Dec. 11, Prince George Dec. 16 and Cowichan Valley on Dec. 17. The game against the Capitals is also the annual Teddy Bear Toss night.

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