Saints clinch BCIHL title go from cellar to penthouse in one season
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The Selkirk College Saints clinched its first B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League regular season title by splitting a pair of weekend games with Eastern Washington University.
The title completes a worst-to-first season for the Saints, who finished dead last in 2012.
The Saints opened the weekend by edging out the Eagles 3-2 Saturday at the Castlegar Rec Complex.
The two points, coupled with SFU’s 4-2 loss to Trinity Western, assures the Saints no worse than a tie atop the standings and secured first place based on the league’s tie-breaking formula.
Selkirk has 36 points with five regular season games remaining while Simon Fraser sit four points back with two games yet to play.
Sunday, Selkirk lost 5-1 to Eastern Washington.
“There are games where the score probably doesn’t represent the run of play and this was one of those,” said Saints head coach Jeff Dubois after Selkirk’s one-goal win at home Saturday.
“We had a 42-16 advantage in shots on goal and could have had a few more goals.
“(Eastern goalie Jason) Greenwell was very good in net for Eastern and we weren’t great in terms of finishing plays. But overall it was a very strong team effort and a good bounce-back from a poor performance last weekend.”
Kam Crawford opened the scoring for the Saints on the power-play midway through the first period when his wrist shot from the point found its way through a screen and past Greenwell.
And the hosts doubled their lead four minutes on a similar play, this time with Dylan Smith wristing home from high in the slot with the man-advantage. Eastern replied before intermission, however, as Eagles captain Bret Kellogg’s nifty redirect of a Zach Maxwell point shot beat Saints starter Alex Sirard.
The teams traded chances throughout the second, but the period remained scoreless until Connor McLaughlin slammed home a Crawford rebound on yet another Saints power-play with just five seconds remaining in the frame. The goal came just a handful of seconds after Sirard made a breakaway save on Ryan Pajimola with a chance for EWU to tie the game.
Sirard maintained his perfect record and picked up his 11th win on the season with a 14-save effort. Greenwell was unlucky to take the loss following a 39-save performance.
Crawford, McLaughlin and Cody Fidgett all picked up two points on the night, while Jordan Wood picked up an assist and now holds a 6-point lead over linemate Logan Proulx stop the league scoring charts.
Sunday, Eastern snapped a 1-1 tie with four unanswered goals to rout the Saints. The final two markers came on speical teams, one power play and one shorthanded.
Selkirk is back in action with a two-game road trip.
The Saints meet TRU Friday in Kamloops before meeting SFU Saturday in Burnaby.
Selkirk concludes the regular season with a home-and-home series against Eastern Washington.
The first round of the playoffs are schedule for March 8-10.
Eastern and UVIC are currently tied for the fourth playoff spot, each with 17 points.
