Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Playoffs in the Okanagan division

We only see the Okanagan division once at home once on the road.  What we have seen has been very tight.  Looks like Kelowna will open against North Ok while Summerland and Osoyoos will face off, however it is not settled.  Kelowna is 7 points ahead of Summerland while North Ok is only 3 points behind Osoyoos.  Kelowna is a solid team good structure and depth of players especially in playoffs as many have been close the last couple of years.  The loss of Nick Joseph's to BCHL hurt, but they picked up last years scoring champ Salahor so it is a minor blip, on the forward line. Goal has been strong and doesn't seem to matter who is playing.  A couple of Rookie dmen have stepped up.  Nick Headrick from Prince George and Alex Gran are having good seasons.  Summerland has been on a role.  Personally a big John Depourq fan (tried to hire him a wiggle ago).  He has a skilled fast team and when I saw them in December thought they were the best team we had seen in the league.  There core group is not big but good skill.  Since then they lost Riley Hunt who went to Junior A, and he is a skill guy who is hard to replace.  They have good scoring in Scott, letaurd, Robertson and Burton.  If Summerland plays north Okanagan I predict Summerland in 4  or 5.  North ok is short on scoring and very young in goal.  Kelowna should beat Osoyoos but I predict 6 games.  Kelowna should be better in goal but Osoyoos has some big bodies who could wear down whomever they play.  Chemelka, azevado are solid players.  Dobransky while not big has been solid on defence.  Goaltending is in question, we haven't seen the current two to know how it will play out.  Both are only 17 and lack experience.  Will be interesting.  Kelowna should play Summerland in the division final.  Home ice could be huge and that does favour kelowna right now.  Summerland don't list most of their players size and while Kelowna are mostly around 6 feet, they don't have a big squad either.  A we see Kelowna this weekend so will have a better idea.  I predict 7 games for the Okanagan final with whomever has home ice advantage taking the series

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