Author: Greg Makarov

It is that glorious time for the BCIHL, the time of the hard-fought playoff games that will lead us to a 2022 champion. It’s been a 12-game season with two teams in particular playing much better than the rest, and they are going to face off this Friday at the Bill Copeland Arena at 7:30. Simon Fraser University and Vancouver Island University both have good defensive structures while filling the leaderboards with scorers throughout the season.

Let’s take a look at some beautiful stats, throughout the season SFU has gone undefeated with a 12-0-0 record and has scored 4.75 goals per game while conceding an astounding 2 goals per game thanks to all star goaltending from Michael Lenko (2.00 goals against) and Cale Dolan (Insane 1.28 goals against). Look out for leading scorers Garret Hilton (17 points), Kyle Bergh (15 points) and Rookie Logan Bromhead (14 points) to put on a show this Friday as their fast and elusive style of play turns it up to 11. It has been an interesting year with a lot of new players joining the team, however the veterans have been effective leaders, receiving the complements of coach Mark Coletta; “Good Leadership, the older guys have really stepped up and done a really good of making sure they are holding guys accountable, the work ethic is tremendous…”

SFU’s opponent is VIU who have been the other positive team this season going 7-5-0. Their goals per game is a bit lower with 4.42 and their defensive statistics are a bit less impressive than SFU’s, allowing 2.58 goals per game. VIU has an explosive offence with league leading Brock Palmer (18 points), Gavin Rauser (16 points), and Garret Dunlop who finished his season with a league leading points pace of 15 points in only 9 games. Their goaltending is less concentrated as they have 3 goalies with at least 3 games and all of them are rookies.

If you’ve ever watched hockey, you would know its hard to predict but with two high flying offensive groups and a stingy defense I think this will be an enjoyable game no doubt about it. SFU coach Mark Coletta has emphasized speed of movement and puck movement as he notes “We can’t get hemmed in [defensive zone].” A match between the best and second best is always entertaining as two teams battle to move on in the playoffs at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre (Burnaby) at 7:30.