The brooms were out in full force Feb. 23 as the Lakeland Eagles of McLennan completed a clean sweep of the Valleyview Jets with a 7-5 win which vaulted the team into the second round of the North Peace Hockey League playoffs. Still, it was anything but an easy feat for the Eagles, which once again got off to a sluggish start after surrendering three goals in the first nine minutes of the game. Something co-coach Jimmy McLean chalked up to over-confidence. “Our 16-3 win in game two of the series led many of our players to believe that Valleyview likely wouldn’t put up much resistance in game three,” says McLean, who referred to the early deficit as a real eye-opener. “It just goes to show that you can’t turn the switch on and off at this time of the season. It simply doesn’t work that way, and I think the guys learned a valuable lesson about that tonight,” he said after the game. McLean also commended the Jets for not throwing in the towel. “You have to give them (Valleyview) credit. They made it very difficult on us by battling right up to the end.” The Jets went ahead 1-0 on a power-play goal from Frazier Caron at 5:19 of the opening stanza prior to padding the lead just over two minutes later, courtesy of an even strength effort off the stick of Bryan Walker. Valleyview increased that margin to 3-0 at 8:49 when Chris Falls beat Eagles goaltender Rod Branch on just the Jets’ seventh shot of the period. Lakeland responded with less than six minutes remaining in the period when Jay Anderson beat Jets goalie Justin Jarvis on a pretty three-way passing play set up Todd Holt and Travis Cunningham. The late goal gave the Eagles added momentum heading into the second period where Matt Hunter notched his first goal of the night at 5:28 after being set up by T. Cunningham and Jeff Filewich to trim the lead to 3-2. But it did little to phase a determined Valleyview club, which replied less than 90 seconds later on Caron’s second goal of the night. Kelly Cunningham made it a 4-3 game at the 16:12 mark of the period on a perfect feed from Jay Anderson, who would add a short-handed goal of his own at 18:46 (assists to Dallas Jackson and Hunter) to put the two clubs on even terms. The celebration, however, was short-lived as the resilient Jets jumped back in front yet again, this time on a goal from Brendon Birnie-Browne who scored just seven seconds after Anderson’s tying effort to give Valleyview a 5-4 edge heading into the third period. And that’s where the season came to a crashing halt for the Jets, who were out-gunned by an equally feisty Eagles team which found the back of the net three times to complete the series sweep. Scoring for Lakeland was Jay Anderson with his third of the game, Junior Anderson and Filewich. Assist went to T. Cunningham (two), K. Cunningham, Jay Anderson and Shawn Breaker. Lakeland, which has home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, now moves on to host Fairview in the semifinal round. Game one was played this past Saturday in McLennan with game two shifting to Fairview on March 4. Game three goes March 6 in McLennan. Spirit River also swept its quarter-final series with three straight wins over Grimshaw. They’ll face Grande Prairie in the other semifinal series.