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2020-21 BCHL regular season schedule announced

Brian Wiebe

 

The BC Hockey League’s 2020-21 regular season will commence Friday, Apr. 2, 2021, with a five-game slate, highlighted by the defending Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy champion Coquitlam Express facing the Surrey Eagles at Scotia Barn in Burnaby.

The other four games on the first night of the 2020-21 season include the Chilliwack Chiefs as the road team against the Merritt Centennials at the Chilliwack Coliseum; the Trail Smoke Eaters as the home team vs. the Penticton Vees at South Okanagan Events Centre; the Salmon Arm Silverbacks facing the Vernon Vipers at Kal Tire Place; and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs acting as the visitors against the Victoria Grizzlies at Weyerhaeuser Arena.

The 160-game regular-season schedule — 20 games per team — wraps up on Sunday, May 9, when 10 of the BCHL’s participating 16 teams take to the ice.

As previously announced, in reaching an agreement on the format for the 2020-21 season with Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, the league would host five pod cities around the province to minimize travel between health regions.

All 160 games will be broadcast on BCHL TV and are not able to host fans. Each team in the Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Vernon, and Penticton pods will play the other teams in its pod 10 times. In the Port Alberni pod, each team will play every other team either six or seven times.

The complete schedule is available here.

The majority of games are on either Friday or Saturday. Of the 160 total games, 96 are scheduled for the weekend, with 31 on Fridays, 35 on Saturdays, and 30 on Sundays.

During the week, Wednesday has 27 games scheduled, 12 games will be played on a Thursday, 19 games on Monday, and six played on a Tuesday.

Day – No. of games (Percentage of games)

Monday – 19 (11.88%)

Tuesday – 6 (3.75%)

Wednesday – 27 (16.88%)

Thursday – 12 (7.5%)

Friday – 31 (19.38%)

Saturday – 35 (21.88%)

Sunday – 30 (18.75%)

Teams are in isolation right now and will have to test negative for COVID-19 before being allowed to conduct any activities ahead of the season start.

Brian Wiebe

Brian's been involved in the BCHL in a variety of capacities for 17 years. From 2002 to 2012, he served in several roles around the Merritt Centennials organization, including as team president, board member, beat writer, colour commentator, webmaster, media and communications coordinator and marketing assistant. He's been writing about the BCHL since 2008 and served as colour commentator on the TSN 1040 broadcasts in 2012-13. BCHLNetwork is one of Brian's many passion projects that he balances around his full-time job as an instructor in the Radio Arts and Entertainment Program at BCIT in Burnaby.