RINK Hockey Academy Kelowna (Kelowna, BC) have won their second straight Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL) U18 Prep Western Championship with a 6-3 victory over the Northern Alberta Xtreme (Devon, AB).
The matchup consisted of the last two regular season champions with NAX taking that honour last season, and RHA Kelowna this.
It was this year’s number one seed that would open the scoring just 40 seconds in as a Carson Smith shot found it’s way through Karter Gibson (32/37). The lead would double 7:04 later as a Miller Watkins shot was saved by Gibson, but the rebound went right to Joshua Johnstone who made no mistake and fired it into the empty net. NAX would run into penalty problems late in the period, finding themselves down two men. They would kill off the 5-on-3 but an Ayden Saran point shot, that was directed off an NAX defender, would find the back of the net with 1.3 seconds left in the first to give RHA Kelowna a 3-0 lead.
Rhett Tubello (2G) would open the second period with his first goal of the Championships, give RHA Kelowna a 4-0 lead 1:12 in. NAX would get on the board just a few minutes later as a great forecheck from Teagen Bouchard (1G, 1A) eventually led to him burying a Brady Ondrus rebound 6:00 into the second.
NAX would control the play in the third with Kalen Miles firing home a loose puck while on the power play 4:13 into the third. NAX would make it a one goal game with 8:09 left as Thayne Wasyluk finished off a great three way passing play from Joel Ngandu and Easton Doran, tapping home the backdoor pass on Asher Netherton (32/35).
Feeling the pressure and having seen their lead cut to one, RHA Kelowna captain Max Reed stepped up when his team needed him most and fired a shot over the blocker of Gibson to give his team some breathing room with 4:40 remaining. NAX would still make a push but a turnover at the blueline, just as Gibson was headed to the bench for the extra attacker, allowed Tubello to ice the game with an empty net goal.
