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Glacier Kings play for bronze today at Cyclone Taylor Cup

Yetis take on Rebels at 10:30 a.m.; Richmond meets Victoria in gold medal match
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THE HOLY GRAIL of B.C. Junior B hockey is the Cyclone Taylor Cup

All that glitters is not gold.

That will be the rallying cry of the Comox Valley Glacier

Kings today as they take on the Castlegar Rebels in the bronze medal game of

the 2013 Cyclone Taylor Cup. The puck drops at 10:30 a.m. at the Comox Valley Sports

Centre.

That game will be followed by the gold medal contest at 2:30

p.m. between the Richmond Sockeyes and the Victoria Cougars. In the final day

of round robin play Saturday, the host Glacier Kings lost 6-1 to VIJHL champion

Victoria while PJHL champs Richmond

edged KIJHL rep Castlegar 3-2.

Richmond

improved to 3-0, but Castlegar (1-2) did not go lightly into the night. The Sockeyes

were up 3-0 after two periods of Saturday’s matinee, but the Rebels rallied

with goals at 12:29 and 19:39 of the third. They pulled goalie Jordan Gluck

with 56 seconds left but could not net the equalizer with the extra skater on

the ice. Castlegar outshot Richmond

30-23 with William Latimer picking up the win.

The Saturday soiree was an all-VIJHL affair, with the

Glacier Kings needing to win, and by a large goal differential, to have any

hope of advancing to the gold medal game. The Yetis had been swept by the

Capital City Cats in the VIJHL playoff championship, so the task was a tall

one.

The Icemen did not have to read scouting reports to know the

Cougars’ potent power play (firing at an astounding 35 per cent) was to be

avoided at all costs. But somehow the message didn’t seem to get through, as Victoria went 4-for-11

with the man advantage while the Glacier Kings went 0-for-5 (which included a

couple of 5-on-3s).

For a team whose game plan was to score a lot of goals,

things got off to an ominous start for the Glacier Kings when the Cougars

scored on their first shot on goal just 68 seconds in. Shortly after, Steven

Garcia tried to engage Rhys Williams in some fisticuffs. Both players received

slashing minors but Garcia was also assessed two minutes for instigating, five

minutes for fighting, and an automatic game misconduct.

If Garcia meant to inject some life into his teammates, the

move backfired, as it turned out to be the first of several nails in the Icemen’s

coffin.

During the ensuing seven-minute power play, Victoria popped a pair

of goals past Michael Hails to lead 3-0 after one. The G-Kings, who needed to

light the red lamp till the bulb burned out, did not muster their first shot on

goal until the 14-minute mark of the first frame. They were outshot 41-14 on

the game.

The Yetis’ second of three game misconducts saw Jack

Kennelly sent to the showers for a hit from behind on Matthew Ho. In the second

stanza, the Cougars tallied at 2:47 and 4:44 to make it 6-0. The hometown crowd

finally had something to cheer for when Tyson Rennie’s sharp-angle shot broke

Evan Roch’s goose egg at the 7:29 mark.

But the Cougars got that one back less than five minutes

later when Brody Coulter ripped an unassisted marker past Hails with the

Glacier Kings on a delayed penalty. Hails was replaced by Bryce DiRocco to

start the third period, and he stopped all five shots he faced.

ICE CHIPS The

G-Kings finished the round robin 0-3

while Victoria went 2-1 … Rennie also received

a game misconduct … Yeti d-man Brandon Halls was helped off the ice late in the

game with what appeared to be a left knee injury … Coulter finished with four

points (2g, 2a), while Wade Johnson and Sam Rice added two points (1g, 1a) each

… the Cougars will be going for their second Cyclone Taylor Cup, having

previously won it in 2007 … Richmond has won the B.C. Junior B championship

three times (2003, 2004, 2009) … today’s gold medal winner advances to the

Keystone Cup (Western Canadian championship) April  17-21 in St. Malo, Manitoba … Saturday Players

of the Game were Johnson and Kelyn Open for Victoria and Patrick Croome and

Sasha Hahn for Comox Valley …