KIJHL Audio

Tomorrow night marks the first game of the KIJHL finals between Nelson and Revelstoke. Game time is 6pm in Nelson and I hope a big crowd from the West Kootenay area will come and check it out. The two teams don't know each other very well as they only met once during the regular season. It was a 3-3 tie in Nelson's third game... both clubs have come a long way since then.

The obvious advantage for Revelstoke is that the ever evolving KIJHL playoff system rewarded them with a first round bye for winning the Okanagan. However, none of the Kootenay teams got he same honour. Nelson has played 19 playoff games compared to only 10 for the Grizzlies. That's no one's fault but the league governors who approved the system, but it certainly could make a difference if it ends up being a long series.

Nelson is in their third KIJHL final in the past four seasons while Revelstoke is making a trip to the big dance in the first season of their new ownership and management regime. We don't know much about them so I had chance to catch up with their coach (and former BCHL and WHL coach) Troy Mick. I also have highlights from game 5 against Fernie (we'll again call the Leaf road games during the finals on Mountain FM) and a chat with assistant coach Frank Maida after the series win by Nelson.

Game 5 of the KIJHL Semi-Final: Nelson 3 Fernie 2 (OT)

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Nelson Leafs Assistant Coach Frank Maida

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Revelstoke Coach and GM Troy Mick

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Check out trailsmokeeaters.com for an announcement about Trail's first off season addition. I'll have something about that and an interview with Vancouver Giants star Craig Cunningham on the blog coming up shortly. Again I hope you'll join us for KIJHL championship action tomorrow night in Nelson.

Hughes out in Salmon Arm

Just read on the Salmon Arm website that they've let go of Coach Matt Hughes. He took over as Head Coach this season after spending some time there as an assistant. Clearly the Silverbacks were disappointed by their lackluster finish to the regular season and first round exit against Quesnel. I think it's too early to give up on Matt Hughes... but I'm not in the room there. It's easy to have an opinion when you have no stake in it. I do know that with Rylan Ferster taking over the coaching duties again they'll still have an excellent coach behind the bench either way. I hope he'll be given full authority over hockey decisions. That being said, with Hughes getting let go today and Brian Youngson in Trail yesterday the league has lost a couple of real class acts (or "beauties" as the players would say) in the last 48 hours. Tough part of this business for sure.

What do you think?

I'm in Fernie right now broadcasting game 5 of the KIJHL semi-finals between Nelson and Fernie. They remember their alumni here for sure as I've had a ton of questions about Youngson no longer being with Trail. For the record I really don't have any definitive answers at this stage. The Leafs lead this series 3-1 with a chance to wrap it up tonight. Tune us in on your radio or if you're not in the Kootenays join us at http://www.mountainfm.net/

Smokies part company with Youngson

Word today that the Trail Smoke Eaters have not renewed the contract of Assistant Coach Brian Youngson. I was able to confirm that Brian would indeed not be back with the club. However, the Smokies didn't make an official statement on the matter.

As for Brian, I know he has been pursuing full time work opportunities in the community. He's a family man who welcomed a young son to the Youngson clan last summer. It strikes me that at this point that family is Brian's top priority. As much as hockey is a passion for him I think practical interests come into play as well. I know we all have those thoughts sometimes! Either way he'll be successful at whatever it is he does.

I know I'll miss having him around. Over the past 3 years I've certainly come to consider Brian a friend. I also owe him big because he introduced me to my girlfriend. That's a debt I can never repay. He's a great guy with a hell of a sense of humour who it is always fun to talk hockey with. I know he was always very accommodating to me whenever I needed something and I look forward to continuing that friendship away from the bus and the rink.

Youngson joined the Smoke Eaters for the 2006-07 season under Tim Kehler. The team had a very good season finishing 3rd and winning a playoff round. He's been with the club now for four seasons and has become ingrained in the community. I've always known Brian to have a good relationship with the players, but he won't pull any punches either. He's got a good eye for the game and I've learned a lot from our conversations. No one can say he didn't make a very solid contribution over his tenure with the team.

Youngson started his coaching career as an assistant with Fernie in the KIJHL. That's a team that Brian has been proudly associated with as a player and a coach. He had a good junior career and has proved to be a capable and personable coach as well. That booming voice alone can make an impression.

For whatever reason at this time both the team and Brian needed a change. Sometimes the same situation can get stale. I think it'll end up being good for all involved. I'm certainly curious to see what Coach Ingram and the club do in terms of filling that void.

For now I just wanted to say thanks for Brian for everything he's done for me and for the Smoke Eaters. I'm sure a lot of people in and out of the organization feel the same way.

Catching up with Jacklin, KIJHL Playoffs

While broadcasting the second game of the KIJHL semi-finals in Fernie I ran into Smoke Eaters MVP Scott Jacklin. Scott lives in Kimberley during the off season and made the drive with his dad to take in the action. I had the chance to chat with him during the first intermission.

Scott Jacklin in Fernie

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I can't imagine Scott is a player who will have any difficulty finding a place to play college hockey if he has another season like 2009-10. Especially with the built in chemistry he seems to have with Sam Mellor. I know losing Nick Sandor will hurt that top line, but there are a number of options to fill that void. They had Matt Wilkins there to start the season and it's not a huge stretch to think he could jump back in.

I'm looking forward to seeing the next level of Scott's game next season.

KIJHL PLAYOFFS

The KIJHL semi-finals hit game 4 tonight in Nelson with the Leafs leading 2-1. Puck drop is 7pm. Nelson could take command of the series with a victory tonight. I'm sure with their injuries they're hoping it won't be a long one, but it's hard to imagine this battle ending in just five games. We'll have the broadcast of game 5 in Fernie on Wednesday. For now here are the highlights of the first two games at the historic Fernie Memorial Arena.

Games 1 and 2 of the Nelson/Fernie series on Mountain FM

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Any fans near Nelson or Fernie should check out the series. It's great hockey and these teams are the last ones playing in our area outside of the WHL clubs a couple of hours away. Again you can join us for game 5 in Fernie on Mountain FM. Also keep your eyes on the BCHL schedule tonight to see if Quesnel can keep playing Cinderella. Great to see their fans have something to cheer about. I'm also really interested in the Westside/Penticton series. How cool would it be to have a game 7 back at the old Memorial in Penticton? I really enjoyed calling games in that barn.

Mountain FM to broadcast KIJHL semi-finals

For the second straight season the Nelson Leafs and Fernie Ghostriders will meet in the KIJHL semi-finals. With the end of the Smoke Eaters season we at Mountain FM will continue our commitment to local hockey by picking up the broadcasts of Nelson's road games in this series and any other future series should they advance past Fernie. That won't be an easy task.

Nelson and Fernie have been the two most dominant teams in recent KIJHL history. As I said they met in last year's KIJHL semi-finals and the 2007 KIJHL finals. The Leafs knocked the Ghorstriders out of the playoffs last season ending their run of two consecutive KIJHL championships. The Leafs went on to win the league title themselves. It was revenge for Nelson after Fernie came from down 2-0 to win the 2007 series between the two clubs. Between them they have won the last 3 league crowns.

It's also an interesting match up for Smokies fans for a number of reasons. For one, former Smoke Eater Scott Jago is one of Nelson's key veterans. Trail had APs on both teams as well. The Leafs supplied Gavin Currie, Michael Spring, Phil Patenaude, Bennett Hambrook and Taylor O'Neil to the Smokies at various times. Fernie sent Jesse Niemi and Keanan Patershuk to Trail during the year. All of those APs made solid contributions to Trail's line-up including a 5 point weekend for Niemi. Finally, there are alumni from both teams on the Trail roster. Garrett Beckwith and Tommy Rizzardo are former Leafs while Josh McEwan and assistant coach Brian Youngson are former Ghostriders.

How do the two teams match up? It's hard to say. However, Fernie has breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs while Nelson has had very difficult seven game wars with Beaver Valley and Spokane. You would have to think with only one day off between game 7 against Spokane and game 1 against Fernie that the Ghostriders will have a physical edge to start the series. Of course sometimes the team that is just coming off a series win could have a momentum edge over a team that has been resting for close to a week. We'll see how it goes! Should be very interesting tomorrow night on Mountain FM. If you're feeling adventurous you could even jump in your car and head up to Fernie for the game. I hear the atmosphere there is terrific and I know I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks again to the Leafs for letting me tag along and to the Ghostriders for accommodating me at the rink so that we can bring this coverage to Kootenay Boundary airwaves. Game time tomorrow night is 6:30 with the pre-game show getting started at 6:15.

End of Season Audio, Playoff Predictions

Sorry for the lack of updates after the season came to a close last week. I was sick in bed all weekend and have been keeping busy at work. It's always easy to update things when there is something specific you're looking forward to... but the prospect of trying to summarize the end of the season is generally pretty grand.

I don't think I'm going to do it here yet either.

There are lots of things I would like to discuss. At some point in the future I want to do a post talking about each player and the strides they've made since August. Really when you look at how far the team has come it's pretty amazing. They were getting killed by the good teams back in September and October. Now we can look at the playoffs and only wonder "what if" because of so many injuries. That said, they still put up a hell of a fight. Only one of the games in the five game series didn't require an empty netter to finish it.

I know people hate hearing the "injury excuse" when a team loses. That's fine and I understand it. However, the Smoke Eaters were decimated by injuries in the first round. They came in to the playoffs without Thomas Abenante, Steve Oursov and Wade Bennett guaranteed for the entire series. They were also missing Justin Brown to start. He would later make a return but still not at 100%.

In the first game of the series Darnell Dyck got injured to the extent that he didn't play a shift in the next three games. He made his return in Game 5, but he was no where near 100% and wouldn't have played in a game 6 if there was one.

Curtis Tonello then got hurt in Game 3 and Trail was missing a key member of their back end for the rest of the series. One only has to have watched Trail's improvement in the last month of the season to see what a difference Tonello can make.

So in addition to all of those guys who missed time I can tell you that at least Travis St. Denis, Scott Jacklin, Graeme Strukoff, Mitch Kaufmann, Sean Nugent and Sam Mellor were all playing at significantly bellow 100%. That's just what I know about and I understand there were even more than that. These guys were all hurt to the level that they easily could have been sitting out of the line-up if the team didn't need them so desperately.

I can hear people saying already that every team runs into injury trouble in the playoffs and has to battle through it. That's fine and I agree, but Trail's situation was well beyond the normal playoff grind. It was in my opinion just too much to overcome in the end. Part of that is because Westside is such a deep team that they can throw all four lines over the boards and run a short team ragged.

Full credit to the Warriors for a well played series. I'm not saying Trail absolutely would've won if they had been at 100%. Instead I suspect we'd have seen a longer series. I just think we have to give this Smokies roster a ton of respect for digging deep within themselves and battling as hard as they did under the circumstances. They were very close and could have won in every game but one.

What a goaltending battle it was too between Kevin Jebson and Kiefer Smiley. Full marks to both for a terrific series.

Hopefully all Smokies fans recognize that effort and recognize how much potential there is in this roster for next year... and also thank the hard work and dedication of the Smoke Eaters who will leave the BCHL (Nick Sandor, Sean Nugent and Taylor Swaffield) after their 20 year old seasons.

Again as I said I'll have more to come in the days and weeks ahead. For now here's some audio from the end of the season...

Game 5 Audio Highlights from Nelson Ford Trail Smoke Eaters Hockey on Mountain FM

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My "Thank You" at the end of the broadcast

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Post Game 5 with Coach Jim Ingram

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Nick Sandor before his final BCHL game

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PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS

Just wanted to put in my 2 cents for the second round of the BCHL playoffs as they get started tonight. I did this last year and I seem to recall having pretty good results. I'm not going to check that out for fear of proving myself wrong!

First congrats to Quesnel for pulling off their first playoff series win in the BCHL from what I understand. That's a terrific achievement for the franchise. They really made strides by adding some scoring depth in the second half of the season. However, this is where the run comes to an end. As much as I'd like to see a lower seeded team shock the world I just don't think the Millionaires much up well with the Vipers. Unless Vernon runs into a rash of injuries and goaltending trouble I'm saying it'll be the Vipers in 5. There is just too much depth in the Vernon line-up. However, I don't think the games will be one sided. Quesnel knows how to battle and will lean heavily on their strong vets I imagine. They do need Halcrow to be in top form though. If he falters it could get ugly.

As for the other Interior series... it should be a dandy. The Warriors and Vees are both nationally ranked teams with terrific depth. I think Kevin Jebson may give Westside an edge in goal because of his big game experience and how amazing he seems to play in those clutch situations... but he hasn't looked great against Penticton so far this season. The Vees have the most dangerous players in the series (Manderson and Bennett) so Westside I think has to hope that their 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines can out perform Penticton's. The Vees have a ridiculous power play so the Warriors have to stay out of the box. Their discipline was a major factor in their loss in game 1 against Trail and they can't afford that stuff against a man advantage that operates at basically a 30 perecent clip. Westside also has to hope that Trevor Bailey finds his scoring touch again after only picking up a single point in 5 games against Trail. If Bailey and Cole Wilson are shut down again I can't see how they can get past Penticton. I'll take the Vees in 6. However, I am intrigued by the possibility of a game 7 in Memorial Arena. That barn might actually favour Westside if it gets that far.

I don't know have nearly as much to say about the coast as frankly my knowledge of those teams is not quite as deep. I'll take Alberni Valley in 5 over Nanaimo. I know the Clippers have found their playoff form and did a great job against Victoria. However, the Bulldogs have all the top offensive guns in the series. They also have the best defenceman and in my view the better goaltender. The Clippers are going to test the Bulldogs with their tenacious team game, but the talent levels just don't match up in my view. The other series could be very interesting as I like both Langley and Powell River. Each club has scorers, agitators, two way players and good goaltending. They work hard and it should be a war. I'll take the Kings in 7 partially because the Chiefs take too many penalties and that can kill you against a good team in the playoffs. That being said, I don't like either of their chances against Alberni.

KIJHL GAME 7

Finally I hope as many of you as possible head to Nelson tonight for game 7 of the Neil Murdoch Division finals. It's been quite a series. Games 5 and 6 went to double overtime and the home team has won each game so far. The Leafs are obviously hoping that trend continues, but even with a win tonight there's little time to rest before facing Fernie in the semi-finals on Thursday. Puck drop is at 7pm tonight in Nelson. It should be a terrific game!

Game 4 Video Highlights: Westside 4 Trail 2

Tonight's game 5 is live on Mountain FM at 6:45pm. Join us at 104.1 FM in Trail and at www.mountainfm.net