The Campbell River Storm are the 2015 Keystone Cup champions after defeating the North Edmonton Red Wings 6-3 on Sunday afternoon at the Cold Lake Energy Centre.
“It is a pretty amazing feeling. It's hard to put it into words,” said Lee Stone, first year head coach and GM of the Storm.
Campbell River stormed out of the gates in the Championship match jumping out to a 4-0 lead midway through the second period. The team stuck to their game plan and thwarted a late Red Wings comeback attempt on route to the franchise's first-ever Keystone Cup.
“Campbell River is a wonderful hockey town. Everybody feels each loss and everyone loves each win,” said Storm owner Kevin Spooner. “We are on cloud nine here. Everyone has put in so much work. This win is for Campbell River.”
The win is redemption for a Campbell River organization that had come close to Keystone Cup gold on two past occasions. The team's toughest loss came in 2006 when the small town on the northwest side of Vancouver Island hosted the Keystone Cup. The hometown Storm made the Championship game only to suffer a heartbreaking loss in overtime.
This season the Storm went 39-4-1 and won the Vancouver Island Hockey League (VIJHL). That momentum carried on to a B.C. Jr. Provincial championship, which earned them a berth in the Keystone Cup.
“When we came together at training camp our goal was to win the VIJHL, win provincials and then win this,” said Stone. “For it to all come together, it is pretty special. It is an amazing group of young men we have here.”
The 2015 Keystone Cup tournament featured six teams – Campbell River, Cold Lake, North Edmonton, Thunder Bay, Saskatoon and Selkirk – representing B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
Round robin play saw each team play the five other teams over the course of three days. Teams were forced to play two games in a single day on two occasions in the tournament. When it was all said and done the Storm slugged their way through six games in four days including the high intensity gold medal contest.
“It was exhausting,” said Storm captain Jordan Rauser. “It is a great feat to accomplish something like this. We won five of the six games we played. We really deserved (the championship).”
Heading into the final game the only loss on the Storm's Keystone Cup record came courtesy of North Edmonton. Red Wings forward Dillon Duley scored with 6.3 seconds remaining to break a 4-4 tie and propel Edmonton to a thrilling victory.
“They were the only team we hadn't beaten all year,” said Stone, feeling the loss gave the Storm extra motivation heading into the finals. “For us to come out and exact some revenge, that was pretty special.”
Campbell River wasted no time getting on the board in the championship game with defenseman Trevor Bottomley ripping a wrist shot past Edmonton netminder Joe Mandrusiak 5:30 minutes into the game.
From there the Storm took control of the game and proved to be too much for the Alberta champion Red Wings to handle.
After forwards Kobe Oishi and Gavin Rauser added to the Storm lead, defenseman Jordan Rauser jumped up into the rush and snapped home a goal of his own. The tally was the first of the tournament for the Storm captain and opened up a 4-0 lead for Campbell River.
“It is a great feeling. I don't get a lot of goals,” said Rauser, who played most of his minor hockey career as a goaltender, from Atom all the way to Midget, before transitioning to defense.
“To chip in at a crucial time in the game it was so important to the team. I am really glad we could take home the title.”
The B.C. representative held a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes and didn't take long for them to finish of Edmonton in the third.
Gage Colpron, the Storm's regular season scoring leader, walked around the top of the circle and blew a slap shot past Mandrusiak just 16 seconds into the final period.
Lisle Smith would add a pair of goals for the Red Wings late in the third period to give North Edmonton a glimmer of hope, but several late penalties would snuff out any chance of a comeback.
The final nail in the coffin was hammered in by Reece Constain who won a race to a loose puck and unleashed a hard slapper point blank into an empty Edmonton goal.
“It has been a long journey here. We worked hard every step of the way,” said Rauser. “We really deserved this. I am proud of everyone here.”
The Saskatoon Quakers won the bronze medal game defeating the Thunder Bay Northern Hawks 5-4.
The host Cold Lake Ice went 1-3-1 in the tournament and finished fifth out of six teams.
