The first round of the Central Interior Hockey League has now commenced, with the higher seeds winning both series. In the eastern division, the Williams Lake Stampeders swept the Smithers Steelheads and the Hazelton Wolverines took down the Prince Rupert Rampage by a series score of 2-1. The Wolverines, who are one of the newer teams in the league, are quite pleased with their performance this year.
“We had a pretty good season,” said Head Coach Allan Tolmie. “We have quite a bit of depth on the team this year, they’ve all bought into our systems and I feel like we’ve succeeded quite well.”
Against the Rampage, the Wolverines dropped their first game on the road by a score of 5-2. In the CIHL, the lower seed in the standings will typically host just the first game of the series.
However, the team rebounded and won both games at the Upper Skeena Recreation Centre. The Rampage almost made a comeback in game 2, but Eli Zummack scored late to end the game at 5-3. The next evening, they followed up with a 6-3 win to come away with a series win.
“I thought it was a battle the whole series,” said Tolmie. “They picked up a new goaltender that played in the NCAA Division 1 and he was pretty solid. The team has been strong for quite some years now and they weren’t going away quietly.”
The goaltender in description is Frank Slubowski, who played at Western Michigan University from 2011-2015.
With a regular season record of 13-4-1, this is the best regular season record that the Wolverines have recorded in their history. Though it is a slight bump from their 13-5-0 record in the 2023-24 season. They now look to capture their first Cameron Kerr trophy, and are looking to make the finals for the first time in the organization’s history.
Ever since the organization joined the CIHL for the second time in 2019-20, the Wolverines have been on a steady climb in the standings. For the first time in history, they’ve found themselves in the top half of the standings in back to back seasons. Going up against the Terrace River Kings in the semifinals, they will host game 1 as the lower seed. River Kings Manager Germain Francoeur has noticed their rise in the past few seasons.
“They’ve been a really good team for at least three years now. And it’s great to have lots of teams in our league be competitive,” The two teams have met in back to back seasons in the semifinals, with Terrace winning both series 2-1. “Hazelton is a very good hockey team, we’ve played them at least three times in the playoffs and we expect a tough hockey game”. The River Kings also beat the Wolverines in the quarterfinals in a one game knockout in 2021-22.
This past regular season, the River Kings won their home opener 8-2 against Hazelton as well as an 8-4 win in late November. In the final of the regular season for both teams, Hazelton won by a score of 7-3. Both teams won on their home ice.
“I thought that with a full bench, we were a better team. When you have your full roster, I just felt like we were all on the same page. I thought we played all aspects of the game quite well from our end out.”
It’s a new opportunity for both teams that are very familiar with one another. Tolmie and his squad understand the task at hand to beat the reigning regular season, playoff and Coy Cup champions.
The series will start this weekend in Hazelton at the Upper Skeena Recreation Centre, with the start time at 7:30pm. The following weekend, the series will continue in Terrace.