SAULT STE. MARIE - The Sault Ste. Marie hockey team begins its playoff march on Friday night against Manistique.
The Blue Devils went 19-6 in the regular season against a tough schedule that featured some of the top teams from across the state.
The team hopes that schedule has prepared them well for the playoffs.
“[The hard schedule] is by design, you want to play the best schedule you possibly can and what it does is, you’ve got to face adversity throughout the year,” said head coach Rick Mackie. “We’ve faced a lot of it. We created some on our own but we faced a ton just by playing good teams pressuring us in every situation, taking our ice away, the speed, the physicality of the game. I think when you face adversity throughout the year, to me especially toward the end, that’s why the back half of our schedule was difficult, it gets you prepared for the playoffs.”
The Manistique team Sault meets in the first round went 18-6-1 in the regular season.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. on Friday night at Big Bear Ice Arena.
