Selkirk College will open the 2013 BCIHL Championships on Friday night at the Nelson and District Community Complex against Simon Fraser University.
Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-three series will be played in Nelson with 7:30 p.m. start times on Friday and Saturday respectively due to a conflict with the KIJHL playoffs in Castlegar. Game 3 – if necessary – will be played at the Castlegar Recreation Complex at 6 p.m. on Sunday.
The Saints enter the finals as the BCIHL’s top-ranked team after finishing first in the regular season standings with a record of 21 wins and three losses.
Selkirk set records for both wins and points this season and picked up victories in all four games against SFU.
But the second-place Clan is no pushover, as their roster features a number of former WHL and BCHL players including goaltender Graeme Gordon, who led the Vernon Vipers to a National Championship in 2010, and former Trail Smoke Eaters sniper Nick Sandor.
SFU placed four players in the Top-10 in league scoring and outscored Thompson Rivers University 11-3 in a first-round series sweep last weekend.
The games in Nelson will represent a homecoming for Saints forward Connor McLaughlin, who was a member of the Nelson Leafs’ 2009 KIJHL championship-winning squad.
He spent three seasons in the Green and White, appearing in 136 games.
Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for seniors, children and Selkirk College students and staff.