Beaumont Chiefs advance to CJHL quarter finals

BEAUMONT -- The Beaumont Chiefs are off to the quarter finals of the CJHL playoffs. 

This comes after the Chiefs staged an upset victory over the Wetaskiwin Icemen in their best-of-three qualifying round series. The Junior-B club won the series 2-0 after two straight victories and will now move on to face the powerhouse Sherwood Park Knights in the CJHL quarter finals. The Chiefs entered the series with Wetaskiwin as the 6th seed in the CJHL's East Division, while the Icemen clinched the 3rd spot. 

Game one of the qualifying round series -- played on Saturday, Feb. 14 in Wetaskiwin -- saw Beaumont come away with a 6-4 victory to take a 1-0 series lead. The series opener saw four different Chiefs skaters record multi-point games, including Ty Sauer and Connor Scott, who both had a pair of goals in the victory. Scott also had the game winner, while goaltender Cooper Melnychuk made 39 saves for the Chiefs.

Melnychuk continued his strong play into Game two of the series which was held at Ken Nichol Arena in Beaumont a day later on Feb. 15. The netminder turned away all 34 shots he faced to lead the Chiefs to a 3-0 win. Braden Bowler, Connor Scott, and Tate Warwarick found the back of the net for Beaumont in the series-clinching victory.

Next up for the Chiefs will be a best-of-five series with the Sherwood Park Knights in the CJHL quarter finals. The Knights finished the season in first place in the CJHL's East Division with a dominating record of 30-6-2. The Knights won all four of their meetings with Beaumont this season, outscoring the Chiefs 20-9 in the process. 

The date for Game one between the Chiefs and Knights has yet to be released by the league.