Trinity Western, Vancouver Island set to collide in 2019 BCIHL Finals

It may be a lazy cliche, but it's an apt one: the 2019 B.C. Intercollegiate League Finals are a true David and Goliath story.

On the one side, you have Trinity Western University, who are not only the defending league champions but captured this season's regular season crown well ahead of the competition. They scored the most goals, allowed the fewest and scored 11 times in two games to dispatch of Simon Fraser University in the first round of the playoffs.

On the other, you have Vancouver Island University, a program competing in just their second season of existence. The Mariners won as many games as they lost during the regular season, dropped their last four contests and finished third behind TWU and Selkirk College.

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2019 BCIHL Finals Schedule

Game 1: Thursday, March 14th - 7:00 PM at Langley Events Centre
Game 2: Friday, March 15th - 7:00 PM at Aldergrove Community Arena
Game 3: Saturday, March 16th - 7:00 PM at Langley Events Centre

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They looked a likely bet for a first round loss to the Saints, who had never before dropped a playoff series on home ice over nine previous tries. But then a funny thing happened: they stunned Selkirk by a 6-1 score in Game 1 in Castlegar and grinded out a series sweep with a 3-2 victory in Game 2.

Now, the Mariners will travel to Langley to try and complete a cinderella run to their first league title. But the trek only gets tougher, as the Spartans won all six regular season meetings between the teams while outscoring VIU by a 22-13. The only time that VIU scored more than twice in a game was way back on October 6th, and they found the back of the net just four times in three meetings down the stretch.

So what will they have to do to stop a team competing in their fourth consecutive league finals? To start with, they'll need to threaten the TWU defence and goaltender Lucas Mills more than most teams were able to over 26 games so far this season. The Spartans have given up just 67 goals this season, or 2.57 per game, which has rarely been enough to get it done when you factor in that TWU also possesses the league's most potent offence.

But VIU does have the offensive skill and depth to score in bunches, led by BCIHL Rookie of the Year Brett Witala. The former KIJHL standout led the team in points as a rookie, and he was joined by Gage Colpron, Garrett Dunlop and Kobe Oishi in the Top-12 in league scoring. Former MVP Dallas Calvin has been sidelined since January with an undisclosed injury.

Meanwhile, the Spartans were led offensively by defenceman Dustin Deugau, whose 26 assists led the league. Forwards Jarrett Fontaine, Evan Last and Logan Casavant combined for 76 points during the regular season, and Travis Verveda and Jacob Mills added 20 and 19 points respectively to give TWU the league's top scoring blueline.

Trinity Western's true strength has been in how well they prevent offence, however, as Lucas Mills captured the BCIHL's Top Goaltender honours while leading the league with a 2.27 goals-against average and .918 save-percentage. VIU's Matt Huber will need to continue his strong play from the first round against Selkirk in order to give the Mariners an opportunity to win twice on the road.

The 2019 BCIHL Finals are contested as a best-of-three series that begins Thursday at the Langley Events Centre at 7:00 PM. All games will be broadcast live on Hockey TV.