Richmond Devils will enjoy home ice advantage when the B.C. Hockey Female Senior "A" Championships start Thursday.
The five-team event takes place at the Richmond Ice Centre with three days of round-robin competition leading up to Sunday's championship game. The winner will represent B.C. at the Western Canadian Shield, April 10-13 in Red Deer.
The Devils are joined in the tournament by South Coast Female Hockey League rivals Kamloops Vibe, South Fraser TNT and Simon Fraser University, along with the Dawson Creek Elites from the Peace Country Female Hockey League.
Kamloops is the defending provincial champions and the team to beat again after going 19-2-5 in the regular season. The Devils also enjoyed a solid campaign with a 15-9-2 record and finished right behind South Fraser (16-7-3). Dawson Creek was second in the Alberta-based Peace Country league at 8-4-1. Richmond opens the tournament at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow against SFU (6-15-5). The locals also play South Fraser on Friday (8 p.m.) and conclude round-robin play Saturday with a pair of game s- Dawson Creek (9 a.m.) and Kamloops (6 p.m.).
The top two teams will meet for gold on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. All games take place in the Coliseum Rink.
