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Cowichan Valley Capitals bow out; build begins for next season

Dissappointing sweep in playoffs, but coach feels games were closer than scores suggested
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Cowichan Valley Capitals forward Matteo Turrin tries to poke the puck past Alberni Valley Bulldogs goalie Hobie Hedquist during the first period of the teams’ B.C. Hockey League game at the Cowichan Arena on Wednesday, April 6. (Kevin Rothbauer/Citizen)

The Cowichan Valley Capitals bowed out of the B.C. Hockey League playoffs last Wednesday when the Alberni Valley Bulldogs completed a four-game sweep of the teams’ first-round series with a 7-2 result at the Cowichan Arena.

The series itself may have ended in a sweep, but Capitals head coach Brian Passmore felt that the individual games were closer than they appeared.

“We lost a lot of close ones,” he said. “In Game 1, to be up 2-0 and end up losing that one, that was tough. Most of the way it was a close battle.”

The Bulldogs opened the scoring in Game 4 with a shorthanded goal by Stephen Castagna late in the first period. Castagna then completed the hat trick with two powerplay goals and Emanuelson Charbonneau and Josh Van Unen also found the net as Alberni opened the second with four goals in six and a half minutes. Defenceman Mason Croucher got the Caps on the board with 4:10 left in the middle frame.

Shane LaVelle cut the Bulldogs’ lead to three at 12:55 of the third, but Chase Klassen and Brandon Buhr scored into the empty net to ice Alberni’s victory.

The Bulldogs chased Cowichan’s regular-season MVP, goalie McCoy Bidewell, with five goals on 18 shots. Backup Evan May turned aside all 12 shots he faced over the remainder of the match. Alberni’s Hobie Hedquist, a finalist for the BCHL’s top goaltender award this season, made 20 saves on 22 shots.

“We battled to the end,” Passmore said. “We showed a lot of the year that we were in every game. We just fell short.”

The Caps had key players missing for portions of the series, and even with a full lineup would have had trouble matching the depth of the Bulldogs, Passmore acknowledged. Forward Sam Scholfield played injured in the three games he got into, and defenceman Colin Campbell only made it in for Game 4 — his first appearance since Jan. 29.

The team also lost captain Brett Fudger to a suspension in Game 1.

“That was a story in the series as well,” Passmore said of Fudger’s absence. “We lost a big piece of our roster.”

Adam Jeffery, who was setting up to be Cowichan’s leading goal-scorer after potting six in his first three games back in October, spent most of the year on the injured reserve, and would have returned to action if the team had made a lengthy playoff run. His absence was felt all season.

“We never did replace him,” Passmore commented. “You can’t replace a guy like that.”

Passmore and the Caps will now turn their attention toward building for next season. The goal is to build around the nucleus returning from this year, and to get “younger, faster and stronger.”

The team will lose six of its top seven regular-season scorers — Fudger, Campbell, LaVelle, David Jacobs, Luke Haymes and Griffin Wilson — but Massimo Sarantos Lombardi, who posted six points in four playoff games, is expected to return and will be gunning for a Div. 1 scholarship. The shutdown pairing of Connor Elliott and Ian Kern will highlight the defence.

In goal, regular-season MVP McCoy Bidewell is expected back, and the Caps still have the junior A rights to Will Gurski, who spent this year with the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants. Evan May, who spent some time this season with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL is likely to make the jump to major junior full-time.

Passmore will spend the off-season making scouting and recruiting trips to build next year’s club.

“This was a roller-coaster year,” he reflected. “But I will say the group stuck together the whole way.”