They didn’t win the Okanagan Conference, but the Sicamous Eagles certainly didn’t give it away.
The Eagles’ battle for the regional title ended Saturday night in a 4-3 double-overtime defeat by the Kelowna Chiefs at Kelowna’s Rutland Arena.
Right up to the last goal from the Chiefs’ Brent Lashuk, it almost seemed the Eagles were locked on instant replay, with the underdogs from Sicamous poised to land another come-from-behind victory in the same way they earned the number-one spot in the KIJHL Doug Birks division, after beating the division’s top teams, the Revelstoke Grizzlies and the Kamloops Storm.
After losing games one through three to the Chiefs, the Eagles turned things around in game four where they treated their home-ice audience to a 3-1 win.
Following a scoreless first period, Jagger Bowles converted a power play early in the second frame into the first goal of the evening, assisted by Stewart Coyle and Mike Piderman. Brendan Devries potted a goal early in the third frame, assisted by Brett Trofanenko and Connor Fynn, firing up the team as well as the home crowd. Teammate Jagger Bowles put in the winning marker at 12:10, with help from Connor Buick and Brendon Wilde.
Kelowna managed to squeak in their single with 24 seconds left on the clock.
The win pushed play to game five, back in K-town.
Once again, the first period went by without a goal. The Chiefs potted two in the second frame. Sicamous didn’t reply until halfway through the third period. Tarren Cavanaugh and Nathan Grieve both rippled the Kelowna mesh, with assistance from Bowles and Brad Crump. The Chiefs converted a power play into a tie-breaker, but seconds later a marker from Buick tied things up again at 3-3, eventually pushing the game into overtime.
Sicamous’ Jack Surgenor once again showed he’s a goaltender to contend with, stopping 77 out of 81 recorded shots on net, and earning himself the game’s second star.
Comparing these past two playoff games vs. Kelowna with the first two, when Sicamous suffered defeats of 7-4 and 6-1, it’s evident something wasn’t quite there for the Eagles starting out. Wayne March, the Eagles’ manager, says that “something” was rest. The Chiefs had four days off to Sicamous’ two before the teams faced off on the 17th. March doesn’t hesitate to say things might have gone differently if his boys had as much time to recoup. That said, March is proud of the team, and of the community, which rallied behind the Eagles during the playoffs.
“My first goal was to win our division, the Doug Birks Division, and we did that and that just made it for me,” says March. “Going on further, sure, we all wanted to win further and that would have been great, but that was huge for me.”
Revelstoke won the banner for the division’s conference, but March says he’s having a banner specially made for the Eagles’ the DB division win in the playoffs.
With the season now over for the Sicamous Eagles, March expects the usual upward migration will occur, with this season’s outstanding players – Bowles, Fynn, Buick, Wilde, Devries, Surgenor and Kris Drott among them – moving on to the next level.
“We’ve had a great bunch of kids here this year,” says March.
The search for new talent to wear the Eagles’ jersey begins next month with a camp in Smithers from April 6 to 8, and a home camp from April 13 to 15. A third camp is slated for Chestermere Spring from May 4 to 6.
