Chiefs 4 Dukes 2
CHILLIWACK, B.C. — They were rested, they were ready and now the host Chilliwack Chiefs are the 2018 RBC Cup champions.
Corey Andonovski scored the go-ahead goal at 8:32 of the third period as Chilliwack doubled up the Wellington Dukes 4-2 on Sunday in the final of Canada’s national junior A hockey championship.
“I saw one of our guys going and he chipped the puck in. It took a funny bounce off the glass and popped out right to me,” said Andonovski. “I tried to get a quick shot away and I was lucky enough to get it through on the second little poke I had.”
The Chiefs trailed 2-1 after 40 minutes, but scored three times in the third for the win.
Will Calverley tied the game four minutes before Andonovski found the back of the net, with Tommy Lee adding an insurance goal at 12:20.
“I told them to believe in themselves and stay with it. I knew our conditioning would take over and I felt we had the legs to make a push in the third,” said Chiefs coach Brian Maloney.
“The team didn’t get fancy, they didn’t try to win it on every shift. We just kind of controlled the puck, wore them down a bit and the results started to show for us.”
Kaden Pickering had a second-period goal for the Chiefs, who got 26 saves from Daniel Chenard.
Ted McGeen and Mitchell Martan supplied the offence for the Dukes while Jonah Capriotti stopped 31-of-35 shots in defeat.
“We executed very well in the first half of the game, we got a couple breaks, got a couple goals and took the lead,” said Dukes coach John Druce.
“We knew this team wasn’t going to give up and quit. They’re very well-coached over there and they have a high skill level. I’m very proud of my boys, they came out and played really hard.”
Chilliwack won five straight games to capture the championship after dropping its tournament opener in overtime against the Wenatchee Wild, who Wellington eliminated in the semifinals.
The Chiefs knocked out the Ottawa Jr. Senators in the semis for their spot in the final at the five-team tournament made up of four region champions and a host.
The Steinbach Pistons, Anavet Cup winners and West Region champions, went winless in the RBC Cup round robin and failed to make the semis.
Wellington won the Dudley Hewitt Cup to represent the Central Region, Wenatchee topped the Pacific Region as Doyle Cup champions while Ottawa earned its place by winning the East Region’s Fred Page Cup.
Chilliwack was extinguished in the first round of the BCHL playoffs by the Prince George Spruce Kings and went almost nine weeks while waiting to host the RBC Cup.
The four region winners qualified by beating out 128 junior A hockey teams spanning 10 different league across Canada.
Steinbach claimed the Anavet Cup by coming out on top in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, then disposing of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champions.
The Dukes won the Ontario Junior Hockey League and had to beat out teams from the Superior International Junior Hockey League and Northern Ontario Hockey League for the Dudley Hewitt Cup.
The Jr. Senators came out of the Central Canadian Hockey League and outlasted squads from the Maritime Hockey League and Lique de Hockey Junior du Quebec for the Fred Page Cup.
The Chiefs and Wenatchee both play in the British Columbia Hockey League. The Wild won the league title and went on to beat the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion for the Doyle Cup.