THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Chill are headed back to the Premier Development League playoffs.
The Chill (8-3-2) on Sunday wrapped up their 10th post-season appearance in 11 seasons, coming from behind to edge the Chicago FC United 2-1 at Fort William Stadium.
They can wrap up their first Heartland Division title since 2013 on Wednesday at home with a win or a tie at regular-season finale against the St. Louis Lions.
Eddie Sanchez netted the winner for the Chill in the 32nd minute, four minutes after Adam Abedlaoui beat Chicago keeper Sawyer Jackman to pull the home side even with FC United.
It’s the first box checked, said Sanchez, whose team is still holding out hope of hosting the Central Conference championship in two weeks.
“The goal is just an extra confidence boost to keep going throughout the game. We knew it was going to be a rough game and we saw that,” Sanchez said.
“They scored early on us and we had to push through the hard times. We have throughout the season, until last Friday. A win now and we’ve clinched the playoffs. We still have an extra game. But it’s just one game at a time.”
Captain Mitch Osmond, who faulted himself for a pair of mistakes that cost the normally defensively sound Chill a pair of goals on Friday, said even though Chicago (4-3-5) jumped out in front in the 14th minute when former Thunder Bay player Anthony Colaizzi beat Danny Elias, they kept their heads in the game.
“On Friday we lacked that unified bond,” Osmond said.
“Today the boys showed our defence can win us games still.”
Thunder Bay coach Giovanni Petraglia credited concentration for the victory, saying his players were focused on their game from the opening play onward.
Coliazza’s goal aside, the mistakes in their own end were few and far between.
“We knew we needed to clinch the playoffs tonight and we came out very strong, despite conceding the early goal,” Petraglia said.
“I didn’t have any bad feelings, even when we were down. My guys concentrated. Of course we should have closed the game early in the second half, or the last part of the first half, but that’s part of the deal. The reaction was excellent. I’m proud of them.”
Getting the post-season berth out of the way as early as possible is a huge relief, Petraglia said. He didn’t want to let it fester another three days and chance relying on points against a hungry St. Louis Lions coming to town on Wednesday in search of a playoff berth of their own.
By no means are they resting on their laurels.
“We want to bring the division back,” Petraglia said. “That of course gives us the first seed and we would play the second team in the other division, which is maybe an advantage for us. But the first goal is to bring the division back for the club and we want to bring the division back after (four) years.”
The Chill had a number of chances to put the game away, but missed several scoring opportunities in the second half.
