Judd Repole has a wide-open net to fire into when Revelstoke goalie Giovanni Sambrielaz found himself in the wrong place in last November’s 5-4 overtime victory over Revelstoke. The Coyotes won this game, but lost two others to Revelstoke during the regular season. (Richard McGuire file photo)
UPDATE: This story has been updated to show that the series has now been confirmed to start on Saturday.
The Osoyoos Coyotes will face the Revelstoke Grizzlies in the Okanagan/Shuswap Conference final, which gets underway in Revelstoke on Saturday.
Revelstoke eliminated 100 Mile House Wednesday night by a score of 4-1 in the seventh game of their series.
Revelstoke finished the regular season with 73 points compared to 68 for the Coyotes, and they were second only to the Kimberley Dynamiters in the league. This means they get home-ice advantage for the first two games of the series.
This also allows the series to start this weekend, which would not have been possible if 100 Mile House had won. Osoyoos would have had home-ice advantage in a series with 100 Mile House, but the Sun Bowl Arena is booked this weekend for Atom Fiesta.
The series was expected to start Friday when the other Kootenay Conference series between Kimberley and Nelson starts, but instead it starts Saturday in Revelstoke.
A second game takes place Sunday in Revelstoke.
The teams then play games three and four in Osoyoos on Tuesday and Wednesday. Those games start at 7:35 p.m.
If further games are needed, they would be played Friday, March 23 in Revelstoke, Saturday, March 24 in Osoyoos and Sunday, March 25 in Revelstoke.
During the regular season, Osoyoos played Revelstoke three times.
They lost twice – by a score of 5-2 in Osoyoos in September and 10-4 in Revelstoke in February.
The Coyotes won one game, beating Revelstoke 5-4 in overtime in Osoyoos in November.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
