The Comox Valley Glacier Kings are hosting the 2013 Cyclone Taylor Cup April 11-14. Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders to the B.C. Junior B hockey throne? Here's a quick look at the four teams.
Comox Valley Glacier Kings
The Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League North Division champs are led in the playoffs by Jack Kennelly (8g, 10a in 14 games) while Andrew White (1g, 14a) is also a threat.
The Yetis are hoping goalie Michael Hails will be healthy for the cup run and looking for regular season team scoring leader Tyson Rennie (21g, 27a) and hard-skating Rylan Ball (20g, 25a) to spark the offence.
Castlegar Rebels
The Castlegar Rebels beat the North Okanagan Knights in five games to win the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League championship.
The Rebels went 35-9-6-2 in the regular season and outscored their opponents 219-123. Stuart Watson is their leading playoff scorer (9g, 18a in 20 games) and was tops in the regular season (30g, 47a, 77 points in 51 games; 11 power-play goals and three shorthhanded tallies).
Their goalies split RS duties: Jordan Gluck was 20-4-2 with six shutouts, 2.06 GAA and .928 save percentage while Connor Beauchamp was 14-6-5 with a 2.31 GAA and .918 SP. Gluck has carried the load in the playoffs, going 14-4-0 with a 1.17 GAA and .965 SP.
Richmond Sockeyes
The Richmond Sockeyes swept the Aldergrove Kodiaks to claim the Pacific Junior Hockey League crown. They have been frequent Cyclone Taylor Cup participants and won the 2008-09 Keystone Cup as Western Canadian champs.
They finished with a 32-8-0-4 RS record this year while outscoring opponents 197-97. Dean Allison was fourth in PJHL scoring (25g, 34a) and is first in playoff scoring (13g, 7a in 15 games).
Kootenay Alder has been handling most of the post-season duty between the pipes and is 11-3-0-2 with a 2.16 GAA and .931 SP.
William Latimer was fourth in the RS with a 12-5-0-0 record, 2.39 GAA and .924 SP.
Victoria Cougars
The Capital City Cats owned the best RS Junior B record in B.C. (46-1-2) and dominated at both ends of the ice with a 280-98 GF-GA differential. They swept the Glacier Kings to add the VIJHL playoff championship to their league title.
Led by Sam Rice (13g, 18a in 14 games) and Dan Feeney (11g, 20a in 14 games) the Cougars are 11-2-0 in post-season play.
Victoria's goalies are tough to beat. Comox Valley native Michael Herringer is 2-0-0 with an 0.41 GGA and .982 SP while RS league leader Evan Roch is 10-2-0 with a 2.61 GAA and .891 SP.
More info on the Cyclone Taylor Cup is on the Glacier Kings website. The tourney runs April 11-14 at the Comox Valley Sports Centre.