February 22, 2011
B Division Playoff Picture
By Chase Norman
All eight
teams that qualified for playoffs are affiliated with a team that made playoffs
in either Division 1, Division II or automatically qualified for nationals in
the Junior College Division. UC Santa
Barbara and Saddleback College had a great year that saw all three teams of
their program qualify for playoffs (Chico
State and West Valley
also had both teams in their programs qualify for post-season play).
Pending
acceptance of their bids to the Regional Championship Tournament, the pools
will break down as follows: Pool A will
consist of Saddleback College B Gold, UC Santa Barbara B Gold, Chico State B
and West Valley College B. Pool B will
contain Cal Poly SLO B Gold, Arizona State B, Saddleback College B Red and UC
Santa Barbara B Blue. Teams will play
every team in their pool with the top three teams from each pool advancing to a
single elimination format.
Pool A
looks to be very strong with Saddleback B Gold and USCB B Gold being the strong
favorites. Saddleback B Gold went 15-1
this season with their only loss being delivered by a dangerous Arizona State B
team. USCB B Gold had an excellent
season in the incredibly competitive Central Conference of the B Division which
nearly sent all four of its teams to playoffs.
Chico State B enters post-season on a five-game winning streak fueled by
the stellar play of goalie Russel Gray (a mid-year transfer). Look for Saddleback B Gold to continue its
reign of terror over the B Division throughout the round robin portion of the
tournament.
Pool B will
provide stiff competition from all four teams involved. Arizona State B had a great regular season
for the second year in a row and are hoping to carry their momentum into
playoffs. Cal Poly SLO B Gold earned the
top seed in this pool on a head-to-head tiebreaker with Arizona State B on
their last game of the season where they easily disposed of the Sun Devils
squad with a convincing 6-2 victory.
Saddleback B Red seems to be the wildcard in this pool having split
their season series with Arizona State B but was held scoreless in both of
their games against Cal Poly SLO B Gold.
USCB B Blue qualified for playoffs with a sub .500 record but they
should not be taken lightly and are capable of giving every team a run for
their money.
Congratulations
to everyone who participated this year in the WCRHL B Division. This years top scorers are Justin Bargar of UCSB B
Gold with 57 points, Matt
Snyder of UCSB B Gold with 49 points and Matthew Han of
Saddleback B Gold with 47. The top
goalies are Russel Gray
of Chico State B with his .879 save percentage (good enough for the top save
percentage of all qualifying goalies in the WCRHL), Leon Robinson of Saddleback
College B Gold with a 1.73 goals against average as well as his league-leading
15 wins.