Nelson Winners, Quick Conference Finals Prediction

Congrats to the Nelson Leafs for making the KIJHL finals. We'll be back on the air to broadcast the road games for Nelson in championship series. Wednesday, Thursday and possibly Sunday next week in either Kamloops or Sicamous. The home games are this Sunday, Monday, Saturday and possibly the following Tuesday. Lets fill the rink up and cheer on the West Kootenay's last junior team left standing this spring.

Also congrats to the Kaslo/Nelson Bantam Rep Tier 3 team for winning the provincial championship! That's a wonderful accomplishment for Coach Jeff Hunt and his 16 players. They even had a parade down Baker street tonight. I'll have some audio from them, local WHL players, the KIJHL Leafs, other local teams at provincials and more coming up sometime this weekend.

CONFERENCE FINALS

So far I'm 6/7 in my BCHL playoff predictions so I figured I shouldn't give up on them. I don't have time to do full previews like I did in the first two rounds, but I think you can forgive me given that I have a full time job and the Smokies have been out for a couple of weeks now! Why does the off season have to be so long? Lets have a summer league too...

Vernon vs. Salmon Arm: The season series was really tight. They both have terrific depth on the blue line. I think the Silverbacks could have had the edge there before Vernon made the huge additions of Brodie and Leidl at the deadline. As it stands it's pretty close. Up front the Silverbacks have the more explosive top units, but Vernon can kill you from the first through to the fourth line. Goaltending should be close too. Both coaches are experienced and talented. Forward depth to me is the main difference in the series. Vipers in 6.

Victoria vs. Powell River: I actually predicted a Capitals upset and it was looking that way for a while at the end, but Victoria played a near perfect game to close the series out. The Kings are obviously very talented and have a high powered offence, but the season series was almost all Grizz. I don't know exactly what it was about the match up that seemed to favour Victoria, but you can't argue against what happened. I'm going Victoria in 5. That being said, the playoffs can be a whole different story and I'd love to see the community owned Kings make the finals. It'd be great for smaller market teams across the league to see them go for the Fred Page Cup.

Looks like I'm expecting a Vernon vs. Victoria final. Not exactly going out on a limb, is it?

What do you think?