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Campbell River Bantam Tyees to meet Cowichan in Tier-2 Island Finals

Team went 4-0 in playoff round robin play and took down Peninsula in the semis on Sunday
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Tyees Captain Wyatt Murray and Carson Harris battle for the puck on in their Tier 2 semi-final game on Sunday against Peninsula. Photo by Alex McIntosh Photography

The KLP Bantam Tyees had an extremely successful season in Tier 2 league play this year, finishing with a 9-1 record and being awarded the Vancouver Island League Tier 2 Banner. There were a total of six Bantam Tier 2 teams who competed in league play, with the Campbell River squad finishing on top.

And so, on Jan. 27, the Tyees began their playoff run.

The team opened the playoffs with a convincing 14-1 win over the Comox Valley Chiefs.

Next up, the Tyees faced the Oceanside Generals at home and again left no doubt, with an 11-0 drubbing on Feb 2. The next day, Campbell River headed down to Cowichan to play the Capitals in a fast-paced, competitive game that would result in a 4-1 victory for the Tyees. The final game of the round-robin portion of the playoff tournament saw the Tyees playing host to the Nanaimo Clippers on Feb. 9. While it took a little while for the Tyees to get going, the final score of this contest would be 6-2 for the local team, meaning the undefeated Tyees would finish first in the North and would cross over to play the second place team from the South: the Peninsula eagles.

That semi-final match was held at Rod Brind’Amour Arena on Sunday, and what a game it was.

In front of a large crowd, the game started off with fairly even play between the two teams. However, at just under seven minutes into the first period, the Tyees were on the penalty kill when Kye Benoche fed a beautiful pass up to Breydan Riecker to spring him on a break-away. Riecker left no doubt as he deked to his backhand and scored to put the Tyees up 1-0.

A short time later, the Tyees found themselves with the man advantage when Ryder Plecas sniped the Tyees’ second goal of the game after a nice passing play by Riecker and Defenseman Wyatt Dumont.

There would be no more scoring until well into the second period when a scramble in front of the Eagles net resulted in a goal by Ty Easton with helpers from Carter Banman and Plecas to put the Tyees up 3-0.

But with 1:33 left in the second period, the Eagles would finally get on the scoreboard with a powerplay goal. Seconds later however, Riecker would flip the puck to Plecas at centre ice and he would beat the Eagles Defenseman and score a beauty after a deke to his backhand. The period would conclude with a 4-1 Tyees lead.

Peninsula came out with some fight in the third period but with 11:50 remaining on the clock, Benoche would again assist on a Tyees short-handed goal by feeding a nice pass to Defenseman Tristan Granter on an odd man rush. Granter would make no mistake and put home the team’s fourth on the day, putting the game out of reach.

The Eagles lost some steam at this point and with four minutes remaining on the clock, Plecas would dig the puck out of the corner and feed it to Defensman Tyson Olsen who would use his strength to fire it towards the net where Banman was in position to deflect it in.

The Eagles scored one more goal on the power play seconds later but 6-2 Tyees would be the final tally.

The Tyees will now meet the Cowichan Capitals in a best of three Island Final that is slated to begin this Saturday, Feb. 23 at Rod Brind’Amour arena. Puck drop is 11 a.m.