BURNABY – The 2022 BCIHL regular season is coming to a close for SFU’s undefeated hockey club.

Sitting at 9 games played with 18 points, this shortened season has luckily seen no additional COVID delays or games missed for any of the players. 

That alone is almost as remarkable as the team’s record to this point.

SFU has won every game this year in seemingly every way, from multi-goal blowouts (7-1 W vs. VIC, Nov. 19) to tight checking, back-and-forth marathons that are battled until the last minute (6-5 W vs. VIU, Nov. 20).

They’ve won on back-to-back nights, and they’ve won with three weeks off between games. 

The team has faced every team 3 times and will face each one more time during the busiest weekend of the year. 

The weekend starts on Friday at 7:00 pm in Victoria, as the team will face the 3-7-0 Vikes who are currently on a 3 game win streak. 

On Saturday, the team will travel up the Trans-Canada Highway to Nanaimo to face off at 7:15 pm against the VIU Mariners, who clinched 2nd place over the weekend with two wins in Logan Lake against the Okanagan Lakers in dominant fashion, and will be SFU’s first matchup in the 2022 BCIHL Playoffs.

Finally, after just one day off, SFU returns to Bill Copeland at 4:00 pm to take on the aforementioned Lakers, who lead the Mariners by 3 goals during their Friday night game before allowing 3 powerplay goals in the final 10 minutes of the 3rd and losing in overtime. 

The standard has been set in the BCIHL, and SFU is playing comfortably above it; their biggest challenge this weekend will not be their opponents. 

The biggest challenge for SFU will be the schedule itself. 

The last time a BCIHL team played 3 games in a weekend was the 2017 BCIHL Finals, where UVic and Trinity Western battled until the very end of game 3, with Trinity Western tying the game at 2 with 36 seconds remaining in the 3rd, and UVic answering with the eventual series winner with 7 seconds remaining. 

Needless to say, this sort of weekend is not common in this league. 

If SFU can come out of the weekend with the full 24 points on the season, not only will it prepare the team for what’s to come on March 4th for the BCIHL playoffs, but it will also prove what they know to everyone: this team is the real deal. 

Tickets for Monday’s matinee game can be purchased at shop.sfuhockey.com; $12 general admission, or show your valid SFU ID at the door for free admission.