March 5, 2017

The Burnaby Winter Club Lions secured a playoff spot in the extremely tight CSSHL Midget Prep division with a 5-1 win over #2 Delta Hockey Academy on Saturday night, as both teams wrapped up their 30 game regular season schedule.

With a few games still on the league schedule however, it’s too early to know how teams will be seeded when the Top 8 Playoffs start on March 15. There will be two pools: 1-4-5-8; and 2-3-6-7.

Lower Mainland rival Yale Academy moved up three places into third place with two big home wins while Kelowna based Pursuit of Excellence moved up two into sixth place on another four point weekend. Just six points separate the second to 8th place teams.

BWC 5 – Delta 1 

In the game Saturday, Delta came out flying and quickly posted the first goal, on a marker from Max Mohagan (Pearce Messer), less than five minutes in. Delta continued to press, running up the shot clock, but BWC’s Bradley Ong tied it up around the midway point (Jayden Lee, Massimo Rizzo) on BWC’s second shot of the period.

Shots finished 21-4 after the first twenty, with BWC goaltender Bradley Cooper keeping his team in the game.

Things changed completely in the second, as BWC struck with three goals to open a 4-1 lead at the end of two. Ong got his second at 7:36 (Rizzo, Jack McIntosh), before BWC struck twice in quick succession late in the period on goals from Ryan Stack (Connor Jollymore) and Holden Katzalay (Lucas Barker). Shots were 12-10 BWC in the period.

BWC would get one more in the third, on a goal from Colten Kovich (Tom Sweeney, Stack), with 8:35 left. Shots were just 5-5 in the third, to finish up 36-21.

The win gave BWC the regular season series advantage over Delta, with 3 wins vs 2 losses. Delta however, finishes three points higher in the standings with a 21-7-2-44 record, vs BWC’s 19-8-3-41.

Yale move up – PoE could still move up

Abbotsford based Yale Hockey Academy also wrapped up their regular season this weekend, posting two big wins at home vs Shawnigan Lake, 9-5 on Saturday and 4-2 on Sunday, to finish one point up on BWC in the final standings, with a 20-8-2-42 record.

Pursuit of Excellence also had a huge 4 point weekend are now just one point back of BWC with a game in hand. PoE knocked off #1 OHA Red 6-2 on Saturday, and then got the OT win vs OHA White on Sunday. They’ll face White in their final game next Saturday, March 11.

Manitoba-based Rink are technically still alive for a Top 8 finish. They’re five points back of Northern Alberta and Okanagan White, with three games to play. NAX have two to play, OHA White has one left.

Rink will set up shop in Penticton, in advance of playoff week, on Friday, March 10 for the first game, vs OHA Red, then play Couer d’Alene Saturday, before finishing with a game vs OHA Red on March 12.

CSSHL Midget Prep Standings at 3.5.17

Last week: CSSHL Midget Prep Standings at 2.27.17