2007 Men's Provincial Championships

The Men's 2007 Provincial Championships were hosted in the beautiful city of Kamloops, B.C. This year 28 teams from numerous cities around the province made the journey to compete for a provincial championship and to earn the right to represent B.C. at future National and Western Canadian Championships.

At the top level of in the province the "A" division was as competitive as ever. The usual suspects of teams were there Vancouver Falcon Machine, Kamloops Blackjacks and Westcoast Gamblers. Joining these teams this year were the young Vancouver Knights. A first year "A" team that had a very good regular season and playoff run who also opened many eyes with their young and fast talent. The excitement of the teams came up notch going into the last games of the round robin. After all the teams were so close in competition it came down to these games to see who would be in the finals. The defending champions Vancouver Falcon Machine and hometown Kamloops Blackjacks were both victorious in their contests and moved on to the championship game. Both teams are no strangers to each other as they have met in this setting numerous times over the past few years. The game was one of the better finals in recent history. The teams battled back and forth throughout the game and with a few minutes remaining in the 2nd period the Blackjacks scored to take the lead 2-1 and it looked as though we would be crowning a new champion. With only 3 seconds left in regulation time the defending champion Falcon Machine banged in a goal mouth scramble to tie the match. At 2:27 into the first overtime period the Vancouver Falcon Machine scored to win 3-2 take their second championship in as many years. Chip Gill and Sharny Kaila both from the Falcon Machine tied for the tournaments Leading Scorers while fellow teammate Mike Venittelli was named the tournaments MVP.  Both the Falcon Machine and Blackjacks have qualified to represent B.C. next year at the Nationals which are slated to be held August 2008 in Vancouver.

At the "B" level it was offence, offence and more offence. David Rutherford of the Coquitlam Treehouse Wild led the tournament as the Leading Scorer with 16 pts in the 3 game round robin. Following behind at a close second was Harpreet Khalkat from the Surrey Giants with 14 pts. These teams would eventually meet in the semi-finals and the offensive show lived up to its expectations. The Surrey Giants took the game 12-6 with Khalkat netting 8 points in helping his team to victory and moving on to the "B" finals for the second year in a row. The hometown Kamloops Bruins had their best provincial tournament in the teams history. Led by Jassi Sangha with 10 points the Bruins finished fourth in the round robin and moved on to the semi-finals. The Kelowna Drillers back in the "B" division after the last few years in "A" showed their experience by going through the round robin undefeated and moving on to the semi-finals to face the Bruins. The Drillers another highly offensive team also had a defensive side to their game holding off the Bruins to win 5-1 and move on to the championship game against the Giants. The teams battled hard throughout the game exchanging goals with the Kelowna Drillers coming up victorious and will now move up to the "A" division next season. Ryan Caig from the Drillers was the tournaments MVP.

Last but certainly not least the "C" division. The Kamloops Whalers, Fraser Valley Flintstones, Victoria Underground and Fraser Valley Hurricanes battled through their respective divisions the round robin and advanced to the semi-finals. The hometown Whalers defeated the Flintstones 5-3 while the Hurricanes beat the Underground 6-2. Kamloops opened the scoring early and never looked back winning 7-0. The Hurricanes not resembling the team they were throughout the round robin and semi-finals could not mount any offence and combined with a lack of  team defence led to their downfall. This would be the Kamloops association's first "C" provincial championship since 2001. Brandon Nobbs from the Fraser Valley Flintstones was the tournaments Leading Scorer while Kris Mattice of the Kamloops Whalers was named tournament MVP.

Special thanks goes out  to the Kamloops Ball Hockey League and the City of Kamloops for hosting this years championships. This event will go down as one of the most competitive tournaments in recent history.

Best of luck to all B.C. teams at the National and Western Canadian Championships.

Mike Schweighardt                                                                                                                                                                                                               Tournament Director