Week 13 of the BCHL season is in the books and all but one team has reached the mid-way point of their schedule. Doing a little number crunching teams that outshoot their opponent have a winning percentage of .672. Now when teams score the first goal of the game that winning percentage bumps up to .753. When leading after one period of hockey the winning percentage is .806 and when leading after two periods it is a whooping .959. Teams are 191-3-2-9 this season when taking a lead into the third period.
Overall, teams have a winning percentage of .597 in their home barns and finally in the battle of the Interior versus the Coastal Conference, the Interior has a 22-12-1-5 record against the Coastal's 17-20-1-2 mark.
The Powell River Kings' Erik Vos is on a 12 game point streak for 20 points while Kyle Bodie has points in ten straight games for a total of 21 points. Bodie also has 35 points in his last 18 games after starting the season with 16 points in 15 games. Darcy Oakes is on a six game point streak good for ten points. The 20-Year-Old from Shanty Bay, Ontario has points in 29 of his 33 games this season and oddly enough did not record a point in back-to-back games against Surrey and Langley November 7th and 8th right before this latest streak started. Oakes will be attending Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut next season after two years in the BCHL. The Kings are tied for a league best in one goal games with their record of 10-3-1-2.
The Cowichan Valley Capitals' Kevin Walrod is on a five game point streak for a total of nine points. This is the 20-Year-Old's second five gamer of the year and the streak started after a season long three games without a point. The Westside native is in his first season with the Caps after two previous years with the Warriors. Cowichan Valley has the third best record in one goal games this season at 8-3-0-2.
Mike Henderson of the Surrey Eagles is now on a eight game point streak after having only one point in his previous five games before the streak began. Chris Santiago is on a five game point streak which is his third five gamer of the season. The 19-Year-Old from Langley is already in his fourth season in the league after two years in the Hornets/Warriors organization and one with Victoria. Adam Hartley is also on a five game point streak good for eight points. The 20-Year-Old from West Vancouver is on his third point streak of at least four games and will be heading off to Rochester Institute of Technology in Henrietta, New York after three seasons in the BCHL with time in both Burnaby and Surrey. The Eagles are one of only two teams in the league to not have a victory when trailing after a period of hockey.
Milos Gordic of the Langley Chiefs is on a six game point streak good for 12 points. The 19-Year-Old Burnaby native has had a multi-point night in nine of his last 11 games for a total of 21 points in that span. Next season Gordic will be off to Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan after three years in the BCHL. Derek Grant is on a five game multi-point streak for an impressive 13 points. Since returning from the World Junior A Challenge the 18-Year-Old from Abbotsford has 17 points in eight games. Grant is also the only player in the league to be averaging two points per game and next year after two seasons in the BCHL. he will be off to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. The Chiefs are the only team in the league not to lose in overtime yet at 2-0-1-0.
The Vernon Vipers have won six straight games. Braden Pimm is on a six game point streak good for ten points. The 18-Year-Old has 32 points in his last 24 games after one point in his first seven. The Fort St. John native is only six points shy of his rookie season total and will be off to Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts in two years time. Pimm is one of four Vipers on the Interior Conference All-Star team and defenseman Kyle Bigos talked about the game with Graeme Corbett of the Vernon Morning Star, “It's going to be kind of weird because there's a lot of people I hate on that team, so it'll be really interesting to see what happens in the locker room,” he also added, “It'll be pretty interesting playing with the Salmon Arm and Penticton guys, because if I find out they're nice guys, it's going to be pretty hard to hate them. I'm probably just not going to talk to them.” The rest of the article is here. The 19-Year-Old from Upland, California already has six more points than his rookie campaign total and will be off to Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts also in two years time. Both Pimm and Bigos played at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan before suiting up for the Vipers. Vernon has the league's best road record at 10-3-1-1.
The Nanaimo Clippers are 5-7-0-1 in their last 13 games coming off a six game winning streak and after starting the year 12-3-0-2. After the latest defeat Head Coach and General Manager Bill Bestwick told Craig Slater of the Nanaimo Daily News “This represents one of the worst days at the office for our organization, top to bottom, in recent memory.” The full article is here. The Clippers have the league's second best road record this season at 9-3-0-1 but are a mediocre 8-7-0-2 at the Frank Crane Arena.
Finally, the Salmon Arm Silverbacks have won five straight games and Keenan Desmet is on a six game point streak and after picking up three points in his first five games he has 39 points in his last 25 contests. The Backs have the league's best record when not scoring the first goal of the game at 7-4-1-1.
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.
