U17 Canadians’ Season Comes to End in Semifinals

The U17 AAA Greater Vancouver Canadians’ season has come to an end in the second round of the BCEHL playoffs, as they were swept in the best-of-three semifinals against the Okanagan Rockets at Kelowna’s MNP Place over the weekend, losing 9-2 on Friday and 7-3 on Saturday. 

The series sweep came after the Canadians had swept their opening round series against Fraser Valley the weekend before. 

In Game One vs. the Rockets on Friday, Okanagan scored the game’s first four goals by the midway point of the first period, before Jayden Rodas and William Trolland scored in a two-minute span to cut the deficit in half. The Rockets, though, tallied three goals in the final 2:43 of the first, giving them seven in the period and a 7-2 advantage. Following a scoreless second period, Okanagan scored two more goals in the third to triumph by a final score of 9-2. Okanagan outshot GVC 40-15 for the contest, with both Joshua Read and D’Angelo Brual seeing action in goal. Read faced 17 shots in the first period alone.

In Game Two on Saturday, Henry Goldman scored twice and Luke Wilson had GVC’s other goal in a game that was close after two periods, with D’Angelo Brual stopping 15 of 19 shots through the first 40 minutes. But the Rockets pulled away with three goals in the third, including an insurance tally with 4:13 remaining to make it 6-3 and an empty-netter with 2:33 left to make the final score 7-3. 

Entering this series, the Canadians had won a remarkable 12 of their previous 17 contests. 

William Trolland wound up leading all GVC players with five points in four playoff games, with Jayden Rodas finishing No. 1 with four goals and Henry Goldman notching three. 

Congratulations to all the players and coaching staff members on a strong season and we wish everybody a great off-season ahead.