The Abbotsford Hawks pulled off what many consider to be a major upset in the PCAHA Final Four over the weekend. Head coach Troy Campbell told Dan Kinvig of the Abbotsford News that the club is peaking at the right time. "From the opening drop of the puck to the final buzzer, we just out-played them in all three zones. All our players played their roles to a T. We had the bangers banging, all the defencemen were strong, goaltending was great, and the goal-scorers did their job and put the puck in the net."
The Hawks got 2 goals from first round candidate Jake Virtanen and also a pair from Mitchell Skapski. Captain Francis Bamford added a single marker for Abbotsford.
So now, Abbotsford will move on to the BC provincials through the front door as champions and hosts. They will be joined by BWC, Prince George, Nanaimo, Cloverdale and Kamloops. Kamloops will have to be considered the fafavorite heading in with BWC and Abbotsford having sights on an upset.
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The Edmonton SSAC Soutgate Lions wrapped up the AMBHL North final with a narrow 2-1 victory over Leduc. Riley Simpson scored the GWG with just one minute remaining in the contest and added an assist. Trevor Posch capped off a strong playoff with Leduc's lone goal. SSAC will now move on to play the Calgary Bisons in what should be a fantastic final, with the winner advancing to westerns held in Winnipeg from April 7-10.
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Saskatchewan Playoff round-up
Centre Four Hockey League
The semi-finals are set in the centre four hockey league.
The Prince Albert venice house Pirates were able to knock off a game Meadow Lake squad 9-7 in the final game to win the 2 game total goal series 19-9.
The Humboldt Broncos proved too strong for Tisdale, outscoring them 16-3 in the two game series. Reid Gardiner has been a force in the playoffs so far and has scored 86 goals combined in playoff, tournament and league play.
Warman came back to defeat Battleford in game 2 by a score of 16-1. this coming after Battleford stunned them 3-2 in game 1. Top ranked Ryan Pilon had a 8 point game for Warman.
The final team to advance was Melfort who beat Unity 14-10 in the 2 games. Melfort will now move on to the semi's.
Matchups
Prince Albert at Melfort (March 14)
Melfort at Prince Albert (March 16)
Warman at Humboldt (March 11)
Humboldt at Warman (March 12)
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The Winnipeg Hawks are one game away from winning the Winnipeg Bantam AAA league after winning 12-4. The Hawks have outscored the Sharks 27-9 in the 3 wins. Game 4 will go tomorrow night at the Ed Golding arena.
The Manitoba "AA" draws are at an end. Steinbach defeated Morden by a score of 3-2 to capture the 9 team tournament. In the Rurul "AA" tournament which featured many good teams, it was the Southwest Jets defeating Interlake 4-3 in the final. The pre-tournament favorite Russell Rams lost the Bronze final. Russell received a big blow prior to the tournament with 96 Jayce getting hurt. The Manitoba Final four will shake down like this:
Winnipeg Bantam AAA champions (looks like the Winnipeg Hawks)
Brandon
Southeast Blizzard
Southwest Jets
56 comments:
BC Provincials will be interesting, its 6 team round robin.
You can bet that Abbotsford will rig the draw so that when they play Kamloops or BWC it will be their first game of the day and the second for the Blazers or BWC.
You know the fix is in if Kamloops and BWC and one of them play Abbotsford later in the day and its Abbotsfords first game.
Last year had 7 teams this year 6 teams, shouldn't happen this year in a 5 day tourney. 2 games on final day only between 1st and 2nd for Championship.
Like their tournament!Wow.Hopefully BC hockey will sort out schedule.
No fix, Abbotsford has NO say in making of the schedule, its the same template used year after year by BC Hockey. BC Hockey sets the schedule, assigns the refs. All the host team does is provide the ice and volunteers.
At least its round robin..Some BC hockey formats get the 4 best teams in one pool. Bc Hockey does a lousy job at seeding if they do any.
Sure, Abby will have the best schedule, what happened at their tournament on the schedule, how they set it up.
SSAC will defeat the bisons in 5, and 4 games will go to overtime, thats my prediction. SSAC beat kamloops, bisons didnt.
Abbotsford will have too much speed for Kamloops. Granted they will get a good draw and being playing first game of day and having the other 2 favorites playing their second. Its almost a certainty that Kamloops and BWC will play and one will have to play a rested Abby team. Abbotsford won't want to play Kamloops straight up on the opening day game. They will fix it.
In regards to the manitoba aa for the Russell rams it was actually jayce hawryluk who was injured, zimmer led the way for Russell and was one of the top players in that tournament along with Clay Tait Riley Welsh Kirk Lycar and Cole Jones
will play Kamloops then make sure they play Cloverdale in opening ceremony game. then amke sure that Kamlops has to play 3 round robi games in the last 20 hours before the final, so that it will be the fourth game in like 36 hours when kamloops makes final and Abby will have had lots of rest.
They will back end the schedule on their competition and ensure that they rested when playing them. No doubt Abby will find a way so they dont play the last round robin game on day of final at 2 pm (final8)
hosts always play last round robin game.
Look what they did at their own tournament
Heres the draw options for Abby
Day 1 Day 3
PG vs Abby Clov vs Loops
Clove vs Nanaimo BWC vs PG
BWC vs Kamloops Loops vs Nana
Abby Cloverdale Abby vs Clov
Day 2 Final Day
Kamloops vs PG BWC vs Nan
Cloverdale vs BWC PG vs Clov
Naniamo vs PG Abby vs Loops
Abby vs BWC
Abbosford will make sure they play Cloverdale BWC and Kamloops rested. they wont play any one of those 3 as their second game and their first.
do ppl. not understand that abby has no say in the schedule, bc hockey makes it. Abby provides ice and volunteers and food and stuff for everyone. THATS IT!
They are setting up the "conspiracy theory" excuse in case their team doesn't win...
Ahhh,but Abby won't win .1 game is not peaking at right time.seafair beat them easily in final four.
The problem is the way BCAHA does the playoffs. Abby might not set the template( BCAHA is not transparent on it) but as host they have a strong say in the order of where the teams are placced before they are put on the template, which effects the Schedule and game rotation. Advantage as they get the schedule they want and they play teams in order they want ie Abby rested.
The BC director of this provincials is the ex president of Abbotsford Minor Hockey.
This is the 2nd time in 5 years Abby is selected as host of provincials, despite the fact others applied.
No one is saying they don't belong there, the isssue is going to be a draw that will favor the host team and a template that can be fixed.
Proof is in the pudding, Abby will never pplay ay 8 am. will play 2 days wher they are rested and their opponent will be playing their second game of day, with about 5 hours in between games.
Shouldnt happen
I love the way this has brought about so much attention to schedule.With alot of chatter on this before hand,karma takes huge bite once again.Love the feedback on history of ex president as well.He will be under a lot of pressure to do the right thing.Play Kamloops first! .
Just go to a best of 3 series (or 5); better chance of the best team winning or is that the objective.
The whole BC playoff sysyem is nutty. PCAHA final four is a crap shoot, the BC Provincials is round robin, no offense but its a joke when Cranbrooke can opt in and out, and you have 6 one year, 7 another, heck one year they had 5.
Some teams even get in every year and don't even play anyone to get in.
The draw should be fair for all, no one should be rested and no team should play 2 games on one day with the second against a rested team.
No team should have an advantage of playing 2 reams on their second game if day and its their first.
No host should have an influence in the draw or template.
No team should have 2 play at 2 pm in a round robin and the Championship is at 8.
No team should have an advantage of cherry picking a template so that they will play their percieved competition rested.
The Abby tournamnet in November is the example.
BCAHA should be transparent with the process
Seafair hosted last year (same template for schedule Seafair didn't win), Langley hosted the year before (same template Langley didn't win) so to assume Abby is screwing everybody is false. The focus of this tournament should be on the boys not the parents crying about this and that.
Seafair and Langley 7 teams and the host plays the last round robin game before the final.
Abby wont do that, if they do t hey will dress their A2 team.
Number one seed always plays host first game of provincials in a 6 team draw.
So lets see if Abbotsford plays Kamloops first game of provincials.
FWIW, with Abby winning PCAHA they may be the number 1 seeded team.
Kamloops and Abbotsord will be in Final .
Spoiler could be BWC
Kamloops has won big tourneys all year.
Abbotsord and Kamloops have not played all year.
Abbotsord has the forwards up front to push Kamloops. However the Kamloops back end will be the difference.
12:47
Go back into the archives to the 2005-06 Peewee AAA championships hosted by Kamloops and see if your statetments hold true.
Just including tiering league and playoffs.
Abbotsford 25 wins 6 loss 3 ties
BWC 33 wins 1 loss 0 ties
There are lots of changes to be expected from 2 years ago but the last time these kids from Kamloops and Abby played was in Peewee with Abby winning both meetings.
All that can be asked for is a good game, regardless of who wins.
Whatever the schedule lets get going BC Hockey!! Teams are trying to book hotels, buses, flights days off work. If you use templates how frigging hard could it be to get the teams participating and schedules up on the website!!
Really BC people. Honestly, who has the best record? Who is toughest to play? Parents from other teams who have seen Abby, Kamloops, BWC and Cloverdale play, please give us something objective. Maybe a Seafair or Langley parent. SSAC has played BWC and Kamloops but never Abby. St Albert has seen two of them as well. Has anyone played all three?
The x president of Abby is the director for this provincials. They will get a sweet draw and home cooking. Sleep in their own beds and never have to get up to play early or play a rested team. Heck the next provincials will be given to them when it's back at coast.
Hawks owned Kamloops 2 years ago. But that was then. Where is Seafair now?? They were the best in pee wee till Kamloops knocked em out! 2 years later with the gold medal coach they get knocked out at coast playdowns by cloverdale.!
BC should do like Alberta and play series. Round robin was scrapped in alberta as they had same problems as BC appears to have with unfair draws and the host having influence on the game sequence. Let's be honest it happens.
actually ssac played abby in med hat. ssac came out with the 7-5 win
4:37 from yesterday is right. If it is a template, how hard could it be to get the schedule out?
By the way, rumour has it that although PCAHA has a set formula for the order the games must be played at a Final Four, Abbotsford had the order changed to their advantage. Can this be confirmed?
Looking at their own tournament and if the above rumour is true, no wonder some of the other teams have their doubts about the integrity of Abbotsford to run a "fair" tournament.
THen SSAC parents, any comments on who is the hardest team to play?
6:55...it is true, Abby had the final four schedule changed saying it was unfair because of travel!?! The PCAHA agreed with them and deemed them the traveling team. The schedule was changed saying that Abby had the furthest travel in the Final Four. When it was pointed out that actually Seafair was farther away PCAHA had no comment and left the schedule in favour of Abby. There is no doubt that if Abby can, they will rig the schedule. Let's just hope HockeyBC has more kohonas than PCAHA.
The regular season results mean very little at this point. BWC was certainly the top team during league play but that doesn't matter anymore. In the NHL how many times in league history has the regular season's top team gone on to win the Stanley Cup? Not many; I heard that it was around three.
The team that is considered to be the best team is the one that wins the Championship, not the team that has the most points in league play. BWC can still come out on top in the end but the whining here is painful.
Abby like everyone else is waiting for the schedule to be released.
This is as blunt as I can be.
8:39 you are a liar. None of that happened.
Distance to BWC from Richmond is app 24kms.
Distance to BWC from Abbotsford is app 63 kms.
Regardless you are lying as it never happened.
Don't think anyone is arguing about past results, seems there is some legitimate concern to ensure fairness for all the teams and players at the provincials in Abbotsford, where the x president of Abbotsford is involved in the Provincials, so the concern on the draw, rest in between games, teams playing 2 games on a day and one team playing rested, are all legitimate concerns. Abbotsford has input in the slotting of teams in the template, this should't happen. NO TEAM SHOULD PLAY 2 GAMES IN A DAY AND PLAY THEIR SECOND AGAINST A TEAM ON THEIR FIRST. ABBY WILL PLAY TEAMS THAT ARE PLAYING THEIR SECOND GAME OF DAY AND ABBY WILL BE PLAYING THEIR FIRST. Post te schedule
As an outside observer (my kid's team was bounced a while ago) but still interested in how this all turns out, it is hilarious watching the posturing and speculation on here. Someone from either Cloverdale, BWC or Kamloops is pre-empting a ridiculous schedule and Abbotsford has their back up because of it. Abby has earned a bit of a reputation but my guess is BC Hockey won't allow much manipulation, especially after all the discussion.
Best of luck to all the teams involved.
Abby getting cocky.time to knock them down a notch or two
9 33 AM. I think time sitting in teh car should count. Abby just has to travel about 50 mins on hwy 1 nonstop, they are their. Richmond has to go trhought new west. and that takes atleast an hour usually, so yeah, abby has more kms. to travel, but remeber traffic.
note to whiners. The kids will decide the BC provincial winner, regardless of who has the longest drive or who thinks who is rigging draws. The template will be released and then all this can stop. Or will it. I have heard excuses from parents on here all year. Fact is all year long the best teams have won. Kamloops has one two huge tournaments and pretty much beat everyone doing it. BWC has been phenomenal all year long. Abby is inconsistent, but capable of just about anything. Further to the complaints about PCAHA's playoff format(which I am not a big fan of). The final was pretty much the best 8 teams(so much for the single game knockout being a problem). The final 4 were the best 4 teams. The best 3 are in the Provincials. Seafair lost to Cloverdale with Sandhu out. The process has worked. Now we can let the boys play and it will be decided on the ice. We can hear the excuses after.
WEHP - i understand you are trying to keep comments and opinions appropriate, but i found it better before where comments automatically appear and then you can erase them. i have had many of my comments recently not posted, and they were definetly appropriate.
Pretty silent now that the schedule is out. Looking at the poll results a new poll should be commissioned by the blogger. Biggest whiners BWC or Kamloops?
Great series in Alberta as SSAC and Bisons split the first 2 games. Games 3 and 4 next week. True playoff system.
Probably someone from Abbotsford stirring it up, since they got the sweet schedule they wanted, and trying to direct the attention, couldn't play the Blazers straight up!
Abbotsford vs Kamloops
Abbotsford 1st game of day and Kamloops second.
Everyone new it was coming
May the best team win and the other can head to KIBIT. Really, it's not the end of the world parents.... Let the kids live the dream not you... Just as many scouts will be at KIBIT as at Westerns...if that is what this is all about.
I hope Kamloops destroys Abby.I doubt it will be much of a game with kamloops tired or not.It will be just like when they tried to cake walk to finals in thier own tourny and lost to lowly Kelowna.Hankies out!
KIBIHT is a Tier 2 tournament this year except for 2 or 3 teams and Kamloops might not even be there. Don't waste your time.
You guys are hilarious. Once again, Abbotsford did not create the schedule. BC Hockey did the schedule as per their template and whatever ranking system they use.
Do you think Abbotsford vs BWC would be the first game if Abby hand picked the schedule? Do you really think that Abbotsford would be playing Nanaimo just a few hours before the Championship game if they hand picked the schedule? Sheessh!
Abby Vs Kamloops is Kams second game of the day. Now it will look REALLY bad as Abby fans that one hey? Overcome and prevail. I am guessing the refing will play a larger part in that game than Kam being tired. They r a tournament team that has a great record for playing a second game of the day. It appears now that its not just BWC that people are portraying as the black hat! Good luck to all and have a HEALTHY tournament !-)
Shaping up to be a very good BC provincial. GL to all the teams and congratz for getting there.
6.02
Sure Abby had their say, they beat BWC last week so playing them straight up is no issue, it's set so they played Kamloops rested and they play Cloverdale rested.
Last round robin game will mean nothing to Abby, so they will dress the A2 team, Kamloops will be up at 06 am for their 8am round robin game and then the final at 8 pm
If traffic is good, Kamloops will be back in Kamloops by 2pm
they'll be home on 2 pm on the 24th, the day after the championship, after a good sleep in and victory. Kamloops will win every game and westerns.
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