Ladies and gentlemen...

Welcome to Game 1 of the S49 SMJHL finals!



Welcome one and all to Prospera Place, home to the Kelowna Knights. In town this evening are the Montreal Militia, who look to come away with a huge road win to start the series.


Kelowna's Road to the Finals
The Kelowna Knights faced off against the St. Louis Scarecrows to start their playoff adventure, and found themselves down 2-1 in the series after the first three. But a stalwart 1st-star Game 4 performance from Tah Puhcheese helped turn the ship around, and two wins after that shredded the Scarecrows to stuffing.
The upstart Lions came to battle in the second round, but this time the Knights were ready from the start. The 2nd seed team took it to the Lions early with three quick wins, and it looked like Lethbridge was dead in the water. A two game rally may have left the Knights wondering if they'd underestimated their opponents, but a tidy Sherbak-led win in game 6 closed the series out and sent the Western Canadian team to the finals.


Montreal's Road to the Finals
You can't say it's been an easy road for the Militia: their first round opponents, the Raiders, were the favourites going into the series, finishing 7 points ahead of Montreal at 3rd place. The two teams took turns winning games, and it didn't seem to matter who had home-ice in the end, as a game 7 Gaspard Boone tally sent them into the second round.
There, they faced the most dominant team in the regular season, the Detroit Falcons. Though the Militia lost 3-2 in overtime in their first game, they stormed back with four straight wins of their own, two in extra time, to stun the odds-on favourite Falcons.


Starting Goalies:
For the Knights, Alexander Thorstrom gets the nod in goal. The Swedish sophomore has a 0.911 save percentage in the playoffs, and looks to improve on those numbers tonight.
Opposite Thorstrom is Montreal's Mike Hunt, who leads all goalies in save percentage this post-season with a rating of 0.916. We'll see if he can maintain that edge against the Knights.