Bulach to Geneseo, Lenardon on Turik

Smoke Eaters Captain Ryan Bulach is headed off to SUNY Geneseo in the NCAA. Bulach will have another Smokies alumni with him in New York as Stef Decosse played there this season. They're two of the classiest guys I've met in hockey so that should be awesome for the school. Bulach's attitude, work ethic and determination will be a huge boost for any team. He also proved he can be a player at both ends of the ice this season as he was Trail's leading scorer and MVP. Bulach will be taking education and one day I imagine will be a terrific teacher. Congratulations Ryan, you deserve every opportunity in the world.

Ryan Bulach on Mountain FM's Overtime

Click here to download

Quickly I also wanted to add the interview I did with Smokies legend Norm Lenardon on the passing of Frank Turik. Norm was great as always.

Norm Lenardon on Mountain FM's Overtime

Click here to download

Leafs Audio

(Photo by J.R. Ross)

I had the chance to travel with the Nelson Leafs in their KIJHL championship series. Here's some audio from the victory. Trail fans will be familiar with former Smoke Eaters Miles Houston, Brock Monroe and Scott Jago. Seveal Leafs were APs with Trail this year including Michael Spring, Tommy Rizzardo, Jacob Perich and Dylan Walchuk. The Leafs are now off to the Cyclone Taylor Cup to compete for the provincial crown. Good luck to them! The Neil Murdoch Division continues to produce some terrific hockey year after year here in the West Kootenay Boundary.

Game 4: Nelson 6 Kamloops 5 on Mountain FM

Click here to download

Game 3: Nelson 6 Kamloops 2 on Mountain FM

Click here to download

Post Game 4 Interviews with the Leafs

Click here to download

Nelson Coach and GM Simon Wheeldon

Click here to download

Parade and Tail Gate Party Audio

Click here to download

Defenseman Taylor O'Neil

Click here to download

Forward Gavin Currie

Click here to download

Defenseman David Picard

Click here to download

Forward Cody Carver

Click here to download

Defenseman Adam Makaroff

Click here to download

Smoke Eaters Legend Dies

From Mountain FM News:

"Frank Turik passed away this week at 83. He was a top scorer with the
senior Smoke Eaters in the 1950s and led the junior Smokies to the
1944 Memorial Cup final. A service will be held Thursday at Rosewood
Village. Everyone's encouraged to wear orange and black or a hockey jersey."

My sympathies to his friends and family.

Leafs Win KIJHL Championship

(Photo by J.R. Ross)

The Nelson Leafs won the KIJHL Championship last night. They swept Kamloops and lost only a single game in the entire playoffs. Congratulations to former Smoke Eaters Miles Houston, Brock Monroe and Scott Jago for being part of the victorious club. It's a classy organization that deserves all their success. I had a blast calling games 3 and 4 on Mountain FM, and they made me feel very welcome. I could talk hockey with all the guys there for hours on end. Several of the Leafs were APs with the Smokies this year and perhaps we'll see some of them in the orange and black next season. Again my congrats to Simon Wheeldon and company for a terrific achievement. Next up for the Leafs is the Cyclone Taylor against Richmond, Abbotsford and Jadon Porterfield's old Oceanside squad. I wonder if Porterfield and former Leaf Riley Loyst will be chirping each other a little bit while this goes on.

Good luck, Leafs! They'll be holding a parade on Saturday starting at 2:45pm at the Nelson Community Complex.

Here's some more photos sent to me by JR Ross. Thanks JR!

Watch Rollheiser's BU Squad Win Hockey East

...on Sportsnet right now BU's game against UML is on live.

For those of you in the West Kootenay, lets fill up that Nelson Community Complex tonight for game 1 of the KIJHL finals!

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?

Spring Camp, Wheeldon

Scroll down for the Smokies season in blog posts I put together today...

I talked to Smoke Eaters Coach and General Manager Jim Ingram about their spring camp on Mountain FM's Overtime tonight. The Smokies signed five players out of their spring camp last year and kept four of them for the whole season. Ingram says they take the camp very seriously as a tool for not only filling next season's roster, but also for starting relationships with players who could develop with the local KIJHL teams before making a jump to the BCHL.

Smokies Coach and GM Jim Ingram

Click here to download

If you want more details on the Trail Smoke Eaters spring camp in Princeton check out the official website.

KIJHL PLAYOFFS

As I told you earlier this week, Nelson advanced to the KIJHL semi-finals with a series win over Castlegar. The Leafs now face the two time defending champion Fernie Ghostriders. Fernie beat Nelson in the finals in 06-07 and knocked Beaver valley off in the semis last season. They are a veteran team who knows how to win come playoff time while Nelson is a speedy, skilled young team that tore up the league in the regular season. Game 1 is Saturday at 7pm in Nelson with the second game on Sunday afternoon at 4pm. Here's Simon Wheeldon on how the teams match up...

Nelson Coach and GM Simon Wheeldon

Click here to download

Hope to see you at the game tomorrow night! Also check out the peewee provincials in Rossland and Trail this week and the midget girls provincials in Nelson.