The Burnaby Express played its final regular-season game on the road on Feb. 21, 2010. After that year’s Fred Page Cup playoffs, the Express relocated back to Coquitlam.
Burnaby’s opponent for that Feb. 21 game was the Williams Lake Timberwolves. After the 2009-10 season, the BCHL suspended the Williams Lake franchise.
Related: The final season of the Williams Lake Timberwolves
This game is unique because it was the last one played by the Timberwolves in their history and the last one for the Express in its previous location. To date, there hasn’t been a similar situation like this.
The most recent instance of a team relocating is the Quesnel Millionaires. In the 2011 BCHL playoffs, the Mills played their last game against the Penticton Vees. After the season, the Millionaires relocated to Chilliwack, where they currently play as the Chiefs.
The most recent occurrence of a franchise folding is the Merritt Centennials. Their BCHL franchise went dormant after withdrawing from the league at the end of the 2023-24 season. Merritt was granted an expansion franchise in the Junior A Kootenay International Junior Hockey League to start play in 2024-25. The Cents’ final BCHL game was at home against Salmon Arm this past April.
This article is about the anomaly that was the 2010 game between the Express and Timberwolves. I will start by examining each team’s season.
The 2009-10 season
In the Timberwolves’ final season, they finished last in the BCHL – 17th out of 17 teams. Their overall record was 10-49-0-1. As for the Express, it finished 15th with a record of 18-36-6-0.
Neither team made the playoffs and after the season, financial difficulties caused the league to suspend the Timberwolves franchise. The Express moved to Coquitlam’s newly renovated Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex. The team plays in the facility to this day.
The Timberwolves’ BCHL home was the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex. It now hosts the KIJHL’s Williams Lake Mustangs.
In Burnaby, the Express played their home games at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre. The rink is currently home to several teams, including the Simon Fraser University Red Leafs of the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League, and Vancouver North West Hawks of the B.C. Elite Hockey League.
The final game – 1st period
Burnaby opened the scoring with 17-year-old rookie forward Malcolm McKinney getting the goal 5:25 into the opening frame. Williams Lake answered back with forward Keenan Bailey scoring at 10:22. Bailey was also a rookie in the BCHL that season as a 17-year-old.
Express forward Zac Ashdown scored with 2:25 left in the first period to give Burnaby a 2-1 lead going into the second. It was the Campbell River, BC native’s seventh goal of the season.
The final game – 2nd period
In the second period, both teams traded power play goals in the first two and a half minutes. Timberwolves rookie Anthony Delong and veteran Express forward Dylan Herold scored at 1:14 and 2:25, respectively.
Second-year Express forward Garrick Perry scored at 5:49 to give Burnaby a 4-2 lead. Williams Lake affiliate player Kurtis Bond got his first – and only – career BCHL goal with 8:57 left in the middle stanza. The goal came in his seventh game of the season for the T-Wolves. Heading to the third period, the Express were up by one.
The final game – 3rd period
In the third period, the floodgates opened, with the teams combining for eight goals. Timberwolves import rookie forward Jason Diehl scored at 3:20 to tie the game at 4-4. A minute and 20 seconds later, 20-year-old Express defender Chris Van Duynhoven got his lone career BCHL goal to put his hometown Express ahead again.
Burnaby went up by two goals when Herold scored his second of the night on the power play at 6:15, but DeLong answered with his second of the game less than three minutes later to make the score 6-5.
With 4:52 left in the third, Express defender and Burnaby native James Bettauer notched his seventh of the season to pad the lead to 7-5. However, 19-year-old Timberwolves forward Ryan Stanimir got his team-leading 27th of the season to bring Williams Lake within one with 3:13 to go. Diehl tallied his second marker of the period with 1:38 left to cap the comeback and tie the score at 7-7.
Perry salted the game away with an unassisted goal with only 29 seconds remaining to give the Express a wild 8-7 victory. Burnaby backup goaltender Nick Enegren faced 57 shots and kicked out 50 of them, including 20 in the third period. Timberwolves starter Sean Donnelly made 33 saves on 41 shots in the loss.
T-Wolves forward Trent Murdoch was named the first star with four assists. DeLong earned second star honours with his one goal, two assist performance, while Perry was the third star on the strength of his goal and two assist effort.
The legacy left by each team
Williams Lake Minor Hockey Association teams use the Timberwolves name to this day. The Association runs several recreation and rep teams in the City of Williams Lake.
The Express franchise rolls on in Coquitlam. The team adopted new colours to match the Coquitlam Minor Hockey Association in 2014.
The Express won the RBC Cup in 2006 while located in Burnaby. Since moving back to Coquitlam, the Express won the Fred Page Cup in 2014. The Timberwolves only made the playoffs twice during their time in the BCHL.
The Burnaby Express only played in the BCHL for five seasons while the Williams Lake Timberwolves were only active for six seasons. Although impossible to predict, it’s unlikely the BCHL will return to either city in the future. There are already four BCHL teams located within an hour’s drive of Burnaby, and the KIJHL moved a franchise into Williams Lake just last March.
