The Heat wrapped up the regular season this past weekend, finishing second in the Doug Birk’s Division to claim home-ice advantage in the KIJHL first round.
In the highly competitive division, Chase finished 10 points behind the leading Kamloops Storm, but with 58 points, one up on third-place 100 Mile House Wranglers and three up on the fourth place Sicamous Eagles.
First-round opponents in the best of seven series starting Friday, Feb. 20 are the Wranglers from 100 Mile House.
The Heat split the weekend, starting with a critical contest on Friday the 13th at home against the Wranglers. No scoring in the first but in the second Cody Hodges on the power play from Trevor Okino and Chad Wilde got Chase on the board. The Wranglers got that one back with a power-play marker of their own. In the third, the Heat took over, scoring twice – Okino from Kaleb Boyle and Wilde on the power play and then Travis Beaubien assisted by Wesley Matsuda blasted the black rubber disk to put icing on the cake. It was a hard-fought 3 – 1 victory for the home side with Nic Bruyere going the distance in net.
In a meaningless game for the Heat on Valentine’s Day Saturday the 14th in Revelstoke the Grizzlies won 4 – 1. Chase got their lone digit late in the second from Zachary Fournier assisted by Matsuda and Hodges. Fournier played well, earning the away star, while Daniel Toews stopped 50 of 54 shots he faced. Opportunity knocked for four associate players who got into the lineup while some regulars received the night off in preparation for the first round.
Playoff dates: •Friday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. in Chase; •Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. in Chase; •Monday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in 100 Mile House; •Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in 100 Mile House; (if necessary) •Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in Chase; •Friday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in 100 Mile House; •Saturday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in Chase.
Ice chips: Captain Kaleb Boyle finishes his regular season career with 47 power-play goals in 146 games played. That is the all-time KIJHL record for power-play markers! Local hockey star Cody Hodges led team scoring with 28 goals, 31 assists for 59 points – good enough for 12th place in KIJHL scoring. Boyle finished 22nd with 52 points and Trevor Okino 48th with 42 points. The Heat finished the regular season tops in special teams.
