Welcome to the Feb. 9, 2018 edition of BCHL Today, a (near) daily look at whatβs going on around the league and the junior A world.
Buried somewhere deep inside me is a fashionista, and thatβs why I get so fired up about jerseys.
The Trail Smoke Eaters are the latest BCHL team to . For Saturdayβs home game against Salmon Arm, the Smokies will wear throwback jerseys that are reminiscent of the 1932 team that captured Trailβs first Mowatt Cup.
The Mowatt Cup was the junior championship of the day. The Smoke Eaters won it eight of the first nine years it was contested and 22 times overall between 1932 and 1963. The 1963 championship was the last for Trail, but what a run of dominance for that franchise.
Thatβs why itβs so great to see Trailβs resurgence this year. The Smoke Eaters should be one of the leagueβs flag-ship teams.
The throwback jerseys are great, and the team is also offering throwback prices at the concession stand. Not throwback enough imo. If weβre shooting for authenticity here, pretty sure a hot-dog and pop (did pop exist?) cost less than $.99 in 1932, but itβs a good break for the fans nonetheless. And, the Smoke Eaters are selling special game programs for $4 apiece that will include a .
All in all a great way to recognize the teamβs significant history.
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On to Penticton where 19 year old forward Grant Cruikshank has secured an NCAA scholarship to Colorado College.
Itβs been a challenging year for the Wisconsin native, whoβs lost half the BCHL schedule to injury, but in the 25 games heβs played heβs been a difference maker for Penticton. The Veesβ co-captain has 11 goals and 21 points.
For his career, Cruikshank has 43 goals and 74 points in 82 games.
Hereβs one of his biggest snipes in a playoff game vs Merritt.
Grant is the second BCHLer to commit to Colorado College over the last couple weeks, following in the skate-steps of Cowichan Caps forward Ty Pochipinski. With several BCHL grads dotting the roster, the Tigers hold their own in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference against heavyweights like Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State and North Dakota.
Colorado College is 5-8-3-2 within the conference this year and 11-11-4 overall.
Side note: Youβll see me talking about team names quite often. Modern team names are like modern team nicknames, mostly boring. But, whilst scanning the Tigers roster I see goalie Jon Flakne hails from the Odessa Jackalopes. Great name!
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Nine BCHL grads are looking for help in voting for the Hobey Baker award.
The prestigious trophy goes annually to the best player in NCAA Div-1 hockey and one of the players up for the award is former Nanaimo Clipper Sheldon Rempal. Rempal, you may recall, ripped the BCHL to shreds during the 2015-16 season. The Calgary native scored 59 goals in 56 games, racking up 110 points.
A smaller forward, listed at five-foot-10 and 154 pounds on eliteprospects.com, it was fascinating trying to project how heβd fare in the bigger, faster NCAA ranks.
Turns out heβs done just fine with the Clarkson U Golden Knights. Heβs in his second season with Clarkson, where heβs collected 18 goals and 30 points in 28 games.
Hereβs Rempal producing a hat-trick in a November game against RPI.
I talked to Dan Marshall, the extremely knowledgeable radio play-by-play man in Nanaimo, this morning.
βThe interesting thing about Sheldon is that he was not a classic academic student,β Marshall said. βAs he was scoring 59 goals in his 20 year old season, he was getting tremendous help from friends, billets and players off the ice to make sure his grades were good enough, and it certainly wasnβt a slam dunk that he would get into Clarkson.
βI think Sheldon would credit a lot of people in the Nanaimo organization, and particularly Laura Landry, our director of community relations, for helping him get where he is today.β
The Clippers have a second alum in the mix. Cole Maier is in his third season at Union College, where he has nine goals and 26 points in 30 games.
βThe thing I remember most about Cole is that, in my 17 years around the BCHL, I have never seen a player who was better at winning a faceoff with his feet,β Marshall laughed. βHe was the master of tying up an opposing centermanβs stick on the draw and kicking the puck back with his right leg. He was huge for the Clippers in a couple of playoff runs.β
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Sticking with Nanaimo for a moment, the Clippers host Wenatchee tonight at the Frank Crane Arena, with two National Hockey League prospects going head to head.
Wild D-man Slava Demin is the odds-on favourite to be the first CJHL player chosen in Juneβs NHL entry draft.
The third highest scoring blueliner in the BCHL this year with nine goals and 43 points in 49 games, the California native was rated No. 32 in the most recent Central Scouting Bureau rankings, which would project him into the second or third round. Nanaimoβs Maxwell Crozier checked in at No. 115, and is projected to go somewhere in the fourth, fifth or sixth round.
Hereβs Demin talking with Wenatchee assistant coach Chris Clark in a regular Wild segment called Clarkyβs Corner.
What a luxury and a tremendous weapon for Wenatchee having Demin and Cooper Zech on the same blueline.
Zech leads all BCHL D-men in scoring with 11 goals and 51 assists in 50 games. No one in the league, forward or defence, has more helpers this year than the Michigan native, which is absolutely astounding. How do you game-plan against the Wild, with Zech and Demin on D and a forward crew that includes the likes of Jasper Weatherby and AJ Vanderbeck?
This could be the Wildβs year to finally break through in the postseason.
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The Mainland division standings should be clarified after this weekend.
The Surrey Eagles are in Chilliwack tonight to face the struggling Chiefs. They host the scuffling Langley Rivermen tomorrow and Chilliwackβs in town Monday for a Family Day matinee.
This is Surreyβs chance to nail down the second seed in the Mainland division and lock down home ice advantage in the first round.
The Eagles are clinging to a one point lead over the Langley Rivermen. They lead the Chiefs by five points, but Chilliwack has one game in hand. If Surrey doesnβt take care of business in these head to heads, they could drop like a rock to fourth place where theyβd have to hit the road to Prince George in the first round.
The way all three of these teams have played since Christmas, the whole thing feels like a turtle derby.
The only Mainland division team that seems remotely threatening is the Prince George Spruce Kings, whoβve won six of their last seven games.
Other games on the BCHL sched tonight have Trail in Penticton, Langley at Vernon, Coquitlam at PG, Merritt at Powell River and West ΒιΆΉAV visiting the Cowichan Caps.
Eric Welsh is the sports editor at the Chilliwack Progress and has been covering junior A hockey in B.C. and Alberta since 2003.
Email eric.welsh@theprogress.com
