Canadian Junior A Hockey Championships-Royal Bank Cup

Are there really no Junior hockey fans around? Figured our Canadian brethren would be interested in the Royal Bank Cup.........

So far things are looking pretty decent for our Wenatchee Wild squad. The 5 teams all play each other once in pool play, then the top 4 play a single elimination bracket. After the first 3 games, our squad is unbeaten with their final pool play game on Thursday.

No American team has ever won the Canadian Junior A title before, could be a historic year!

APLMAN99 wrote:

Are there really no Junior hockey fans around? Figured our Canadian brethren would be interested in the Royal Bank ...more

APLMAN99 wrote:

Are there really no Junior hockey fans around? Figured our Canadian brethren would be interested in the Royal Bank Cup.........

So far things are looking pretty decent for our Wenatchee Wild squad. The 5 teams all play each other once in pool play, then the top 4 play a single elimination bracket. After the first 3 games, our squad is unbeaten with their final pool play game on Thursday.

No American team has ever won the Canadian Junior A title before, could be a historic year!

...more

Junior hockey is great but that is pretty low level. The WHL, OHL, and QMJHL are the leagues with the really good players that will become pros. When you consider also foreign leagues and the NCAA, that tournament would be like winning a schoolboy C class championship. So probably not a lot to talk about, it's cool for Wenatchee though.

Junior fan here, yes - but our A team got bounced from the playoffs here like over a month ago, so there went my interest until next year....

APLMAN99 wrote:

Are there really no Junior hockey fans around? Figured our Canadian brethren would be interested in the Royal Bank ...more

APLMAN99 wrote:

Are there really no Junior hockey fans around? Figured our Canadian brethren would be interested in the Royal Bank Cup.........

So far things are looking pretty decent for our Wenatchee Wild squad. The 5 teams all play each other once in pool play, then the top 4 play a single elimination bracket. After the first 3 games, our squad is unbeaten with their final pool play game on Thursday.

No American team has ever won the Canadian Junior A title before, could be a historic year!

...more

gabrielito wrote:

Junior hockey is great but that is pretty low level. The WHL, OHL, and QMJHL are the leagues with the really good players that ...more

gabrielito wrote:

Junior hockey is great but that is pretty low level. The WHL, OHL, and QMJHL are the leagues with the really good players that will become pros. When you consider also foreign leagues and the NCAA, that tournament would be like winning a schoolboy C class championship. So probably not a lot to talk about, it's cool for Wenatchee though.

...more

Definitely not insinuating that these guys are NHL bound in the next season or two, but the majority of the players end up earning scholarships to play D1 hockey.

I'm not Canadian, and certainly don't spend a ton of time in the smaller towns in the northern parts of the provinces, but what we're told is that these junior teams are usually the "big entertainment draw" during the winters in those areas. That sounds about right, as it's certainly the case here. On weekend series, you can often actually find a fair number of fans that travel 5+ hours down here to root on their teams.

It's pretty decent hockey, even if it isn't NHL level.

And hopefully Sunday, they crown their first American champ!

One thing that's crazy is how close these teams are. All of them except for the host team, Chilliwack, had to win several series to get there, so they should obviously be top notch for that level. But so far, 5 of the 7 games played have went to either an overtime period or a shootout. No real routs have occurred yet, unless winning by a goal in regulation qualifies.

Don't have time to follow hockey. Even NHL as I spend all my free time in a hockey rink. I have a 15yr old who plays on two teams and I play on two "burp" beer league teams. Sometimes I feel like I live at the rink but I love watching when I can. We have The San Diego Sabers Junior team at our local rink. They play WSHL.

Well, no history after all.......

Wenatchee was the only team to go 4-0 in pool play, and won their 4th game 7-1 against Wellington. They then played Wellington in the semifinal game and lost 2-1. In talking to a couple of people who traveled up to watch for the last week, it was a bizarre game. Wellington had averaged over 30 penalty minutes a game for the tourney, but in the semifinal the officials put their whistles in their pockets and let just about anything go. Wellington ended the game with 6 penalty minutes, and from the folks who were there (admittedly homers) the physical beating that the officials allowed on the Wenatchee goalie was the difference. The difference in officiating definitely didn't help the "cleaner" team, but I doubt that the Canadian federation really wanted an American team to finally win a Canadian title.......!

Hopefully this just makes the kids who return next year that much hungrier.