The 100 Mile House Wranglers are Keystone Cup champions following a 3-2 overtime victory against the Saskatoon Quakers Sunday afternoon in Regina.
On the road to the Keystone Cup, the Wranglers defeated the Kimberley Dynamiters to claim the 2016 KIJHL crown in five games, before winning the B.C. provincial championship and Cyclone Taylor Cup with a 5-4 triumph over the host Victoria Cougars April 10.
Cole Zimmerman, 20, a native of 100 Mile House, scored the overtime-winning goal in Sunday’s win.
The Wranglers went 3-2 in round-robin play, defeating the host Extreme Hockey Regina Capitals, North Peace Navigators and Peguis Juniors, while losing to the Thunder Bay Northern Hawks and Quakers.
The Navigators, of the North West Junior Hockey League, used overtime to defeat the Capitals, of the Prairie Junior Hockey League, in the bronze medal game.
This marks the fifth consecutive year the Cyclone Taylor Cup champion has gone on to win the Keystone Cup for western Canadian Junior B supremacy.
British Columbia-based teams have claimed 12 Keystone Cup titles since 1983.
In 2015, the Campbell River Storm of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League edged the Dynamiters for the provincial title before going on to win the Keystone Cup in Cold Lake, Alta.
