Week 14 of the BCHL season is in the books and as the year continues on team captains are relied on more and more.
Ron Kelly of the Westside Warriors exemplifies the team nickname as he told Kevin Parnell of the Kelowna Capital News, “Unless both your legs are broken and you can't hop off the ice, you have to get up. You do it for your teammates and you don't want to show any weakness to your opponents.” The full player piece is here. The Warriors are one of only two teams along with Merritt to not yet have a victory in overtime.
Captain Jessie Tresierra of the Langley Chiefs chatted with Gary Ahuja of the Langley Times about evolving as a player and mentioned his father saying, “My dad would push me to be more physical and stuff. (And) when I started fighting in junior, he started telling me 'rush the puck, put the puck in the net.” The rest of the player piece is here. The Chiefs are 11-5-1-0 at home this season and 8-9-0-0 on the road.
The Vernon Vipers have the league's longest winning streak with nine straight victories. While giving up the fewest goals against on average the Vipers have also given up the fewest shots against on average in the league at 25.7.
The Salmon Arm Silverbacks on the other hand have won eight straight games for the second time this season. Keenan Desmet is on a nine game point streak for a total of 14 points and has points in 20 of his last 21 games played. Ashford McMaster is on a seven game point streak good for 11 points and also has points in 14 of his last 16 games for a total of 22 points. The 20-Year-Old is from Siksika, Alberta and in his third year in the league is only five points shy of tying his career season high of 38 points which he had in his rookie campaign. After two seasons in Victoria, McMaster is leading all BCHL defenseman in points and along with Zach Josepher of Penticton (fourth in scoring for defenseman) will not be representing the Interior Conference at the All-Star Game in Vernon.
The Alberni Valley Bulldogs have eight points in their last seven games after totalling nine points in their first 29 games. Four of Alberni's six wins on the season have come against the Mainland Division.
Head Coach Dave McLellan of the Burnaby Express changed his teams systems recently and snapped a ten game winless streak as he told Grant Granger of the Burnaby NewsLeader “”I built the team to be an aggressive team like last year's team, but we've come to the conclusion with this many injuries we're going to have to slow the game down as much as we possibly can, which we did a real good job with. I can tell you Victoria didn't like it. It was an ugly game.” The full article is here. Burnaby is one of only three teams in the league to not have a regulation loss when scoring first as they are 8-0-0-4. Trail and Victoria are the other two.
The Powell River Kings' Erik Vos is on a 14 game point streak for 22 points while Darcy Oakes is on a eight game point streak good for 13 points. The Kings still lead the league in shots for a game on average with 34.7.
Mike Henderson of the Surrey Eagles is on a ten game point streak good for 14 points. The Eagles are 10-6-0-1 at home this year but 5-8-0-1 on the road.
Kevin Walrod of the Cowichan Valley Capitals is on a seven game point streak good for 11 points. Oddly the Capitals have the third fewest average shots per game at 30.0 and have given up the fourth most shots per game at 33.6.
Penticton Vees Head Coach and General Manager Fred Harbinson after his team lost for the fourth time this season in overtime in Trail told Emanuel Sequeira of the Penticton Western News, “I've never seen something like this,” he said. “Four overtime losses in one rink in one year blows your mind. In three out of those four games, we had over 40 shots. We had three clear-cut breakaways to blow the game open and we didn't score on.” The complete article is here. Sticking with the home and away records the Vees are 12-3-0-1 at home and 6-9-0-4 on the road.
Patrick Haas, the voice of the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, takes a weekly look at the top news from around the BC Hockey League. Each week, Patrick will review the headlines that have fans of the league's 16 teams buzzing.
