After 26 days on the road, the West Kelowna Warriors are going home as national champions.
They defeated the Lloydminster Bobcats 4-0 Sunday afternoon in Lloydminster, Sask., to win the RBC Cup Canadian junior A hockey title, disappointing a hometown crowd of about 2,000 in the border city that straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan line.
Jonathan Desbiens, Reed Gunville, Prince George native Liam Blackburn and Rylan Yaremko supplied the offence and Matthew Greenfield was a fortress in net for West Kelowna, making 48 saves as the player of the game.
“It feels unreal," said Blackburn. "It’s not every day you get this opportunity and to have it with such a great group is something special for sure. From Day 1 it was our goal to get here and to get it in (my) final year is a special way to end my junior career off.
“It’s amazing just to lift that trophy over your head, knowing it’s something you won’t get to do ever again, with that trophy. It’s just crazy.
“It’s been a long journey for sure and you would think you’d get sick of guys but it’s brought us all closer together."
The Bobcats came out flying and outplayed and outshot the Warriors 18-12 in the first period, but Greenfield held them scoreless, coming out of his crease to cut down the angles and smothering the rebounds, establishing a trend he kept up all game.
Desbiens opened the scoring 5:21 into the game and Gunville connected on a one-timer from the deep slot to double the Warriors’ lead 6:29 into the second period.
Blackburn, a 19-year-old University of New Hampshire recruit in his last junior hockey game, scored shorthanded to make it a 3-0 game, 10:24 into the third period. He picked off the puck from Bobcats goalie Alex Leclerc, who had trouble handling it off the backboard, and Blackburn found the net from a sharp angle, his second shorthanded goal of the tournament.
“It sort of just got poked onto my stick and I saw a bit of a hole behind the goalie and threw it there and luckily it went in. That insurance goal sort of took all the tension off the team, it was unbelievable.
“We had such a good group and from the top guy on our team to the bottom everyone bought in throughout the whole year. Everyone knew their role and they did everything to fill their role. I’m just glad I took that extra year (to defer my scholarship) to spend the time here and win all we did but I’m definitely ready to move on to university hockey now.”
Yaremko capped the scoring at 17:24 with a long rolling shot into an empty net, with Leclerc on the bench.
The Bobcats outshot the Warriors 48-27 and Greenfield could not be beaten.
“He played unbelievable and if not for him we probably wouldn’t be here right now,” said Prince George's Jake LeBrun, a Warriors forward who also praised the goaltending of backup Keelan Williams, who played the first three games of the RBC Cup while Greenfield was recovering from a concussion.
“That showed a lot of character for him to come in and play the way he did. He came in and won the BCHL for us too, We have the best duo of goaltenders I’ve ever seen.”
The Warriors’ path to the national title started with playoff wins over Salmon Arm and Penticton, both six-game series. They then advanced out of the third-round tournament of division winners to qualify for the B.C. Hockey League final, in which they defeated the Chilliwack Chiefs four games to two. The Warriors then advanced to the Western Canada Cup in Estevan, Sask., and were the first of two teams to qualify for the RBC Cup.
LeBrun, 20, who was born and raised in Prince George, did not start the season with the Warriors. He was traded to West Kelowna in January from the Prince George Spruce Kings along with 20-year-old left-winger Bryan Basilico, who also played in Sunday’s final. Before he joined the Spruce Kings, Basilico played two years for the Trail Smoke Eaters and had no junior playoff experience before he joined the Warriors.
At the time of the trade, LeBrun was recovering from a broken collar bone. Had that deal not been made, his and Basilico’s junior careers likely would have ended in late-February, when the Spruce Kings' season concluded without a playoff berth.
“Not many people have had a chance to win this tournament and to get this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was pretty special,” said LeBrun.
“It was pretty funny on that trade deadline day. I was running around trying to get a note from a doctor to clarify when I would be back to give (the Warriors) justification to trade for me and I ended up getting the note I needed and the team put their faith in me that I would be back in time to play.”
LeBrun was a stickboy for the Spruce Kings at the 2007 RBC Cup in Prince George, where the host Kings finished as the runner-up. They lost to the Aurora Tigers 3-1 in the final, after an epic five-period overtime win over Camrose in the semifinal the previous night.
“Now I have an RBC gold and silver medal,” said LeBrun.
As RBC Cup hosts, the Bobcats had a five-week break after they were eliminated in the third round of the AJHL playoffs by St. Albert. They won just one of their four round-robin games but turned it on in the RBC Cup playoffs. The Bobcats were 6-2 upset semifinal winners Saturday over the Trenton (Ont.) Golden Hawks. Trenton finished first in the round-robin standings with a 3-1 record, while the Bobcats went 1-3 to finish fourth.
“(The Bobcats) gave us everything they had in the first period and we had to step up our game in the second and third,” said Blackburn. "They snuck their way in but they’re a great organization and a great team and they gave it their all and played the way they had to.”
The Warriors went 3-1 in the round robin, then beat the Alberta Junior Hockey League-champion Brooks Bandits 4-1 in the semifinals to advance. LeBrun opened the scoring in that game. He had three goals and two assists for five points in six games, tied for fifth in tournament scoring. Blackburn totaled three goals and four assists for seven points, tied with tournament MVP Cole Makar of Brooks for the scoring lead.
