'I owed it to the guys': Calgary Canucks advance after Easton Hewson's overtime heroics

Inside the Calgary Canucks' dressing room, the team has what's called the playoff wall.

Every time they win a game, a puck gets added.

The Canucks are now up to four after beating the Grand Prairie Storm four games to two in Round 1.

That's four down and eight to go to reach their ultimate goal of a league championship.

Defenceman Easton Hewson was the hero in Game 6 against the Storm on Sunday night.

Hewson describes what happened on the overtime winner:

"It was my first shift in overtime and I was just skating up the ice, you know, trying to get the puck in and I ended up passing out to (Ty) Hipkin and driving to the net and got a lucky bounce that went onto my stick," he said.

Making it right

Scoring the overtime winner was redemption for Hewson.

In the third period, the Canucks were on a power play and he coughed up the puck at the Storm blueline.

That led to Grande Prairie tying the game at four apiece.

Hewson says making it right felt really good.

"I knew I owed it to the guys to get that one," the 18-year-old said.

"I'm just glad we were able to get the win. It was a great shot by Hipkin and yeah, it was awesome."

What it's all about

Hipkin missed a couple of games in the series due to injury and was glad to be back for Game 6.

The forward says this is the most fun he's had playing hockey.

"It's super exciting," he said.

"This is the furthest I've ever been. We're two series away from winning it all, so it's very exciting."

Young team; big lessons

The Canucks are a young team, with 11 first-year players.

Forward Riley Bracko is one of them.

He scored the overtime winner in Game 1 of the series against Grande Prairie and says he's learned a lot about playoff hockey at this level.

"What you've got to do to get it done is the biggest part, and how much you've got to sacrifice to win every game," the 19-year-old said.

"You've got to go out there and do your role and it doesn't really matter if you're the one scoring or making plays, you've got to go out there and give it your all."

Preparing for Dragons

Now, it's off to Round 2 to face the Drumheller Dragons and hopefully, put another four pucks on the wall.

Hipkin says he's preparing for another tough series.

"They play fast and they play hard," the 20-year-old said.

"It's almost the same as Grande Prairie, but almost a little bit faster. They're in your face all the time, so we've got to play just as fast."

Here's the schedule for the Canucks-Dragons series:

• Game 1 on March 29, @ Calgary;
• Game 2 on March 30, @ Calgary;
• Game 3 on April 2, @ Drumheller;
• Game 4 on April 3, @ Drumheller;
• Game 5 (if necessary) on April 5, @ Calgary;
• Game 6 (if necessary) on April 7, @ Drumheller; and
• Game 7 (if necessary) on April 9, @ Calgary.