The Creston Valley Minor Hockey Association’s bantam rep Chiefs won the zone playoffs in Creston over the Feb. 17-19 weekend and will represent the East Kootenay Minor Hockey Association at the Tier 3 level in the provincial tournament at the Burnaby Winter Club in Vancouver from March 18-23. A hard fought final against the Elk Valley Wild resulted in a 3-1 victory over last years’ provincial champions.
Three teams, the Creston Chiefs, Elk Valley Wild and Cranbrook Ice, qualified for the tournament. In the round robin on Friday afternoon, the Chiefs skated to a 4-1 win over Cranbrook in a fast paced, exciting match where Logan Wullum scored two goals and Matthew Armitage provided outstanding goaltending to beat Cranbrook. Excellent team defence led by Ethan Plotnikoff, Zach Van Ruyskensvelde, Michael Makortoff and Tanner Kidd helped yield the win for the Chiefs.
On Saturday, the Chiefs came out flat and lost 7-2 to the Elk Valley team. On Sunday, Creston got some help when Elk Valley skated to a 3-3 tie with Cranbrook, eliminating Cranbrook and allowing the Chiefs to earn a spot in the final.
The final on Sunday afternoon was a battle. Both teams came out flying and after 18 minutes of back and forth action, the Chiefs drew first blood with a goal by Jake Livingstone, who ended up with two goals in the final period. The Chiefs controlled the action in the neutral ice area and the forwards put exceptional fore-check pressure on the Elk Valley team. Wullum, Jake Kolodychuk, Kieran Simpson, Carlos Blackmore, Tyler Everitt and Livingstone played a great game. Armitage shone in goal again for the Chiefs.