EXPRESS ALUMS WIN NCAA LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS

It's NCAA playoff time and a number of Express alumni have gone head to head in their respective league playoffs.

And a number of them won their respective league championships.

HOCKEY EAST CHAMPIONS NORTHEASTERN:

Ryan Rosenthal's Northeastern Huskies are the Hockey East champions. In the hockey east semi finals they defeated Thatcher Demko and Boston College. Then defeated UMass-Lowell in the final.

Click here for the Northeastern game story. 

ECAC CHAMPIONS QUINNIPIAC:

Bo and Canon Pieper at Qunnipiac are ECAC champions. They defeated Express alums Alexander Kerfoot and Phil Zielonka and Harvard University for the title. Bo Pieper scored for Qunnipiac as they opened up a 3-0 lead Saturday. Click here for Qunnipiac game story Qunnipiac has had a fantastic season and will be the number one seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

WCHA CHAMPIONS FERRIS STATE:

The winning beat goes on for Corey Mackin, he along with another Express alum Simon Denis are the WCHA champions. Along the way they defeated Alex Petan's Michigan Tech Huskies in the semi finals. Then they defeated Cole Huggins and Minnesota State 2-1 to win the WCHA title.

Mackin this year was named the WCHA rookie of the year. As part of Minnesota State's runs to the WCHA final they defeated Gordie Defiel and Lake Superior State in the quarter final last weekend in a best of three. Lake Superior's lone win was a 2-0 shutout win where Defiel made 57 saves.

Click here for Ferris State game recap

Today was selection Sunday for the NCAA tournament which leads to the Frozen Four. Click here for the NCAA tournament matches

Quinnipiac will face RIT in one East Regional first round game. Ferris State will face St. Cloud State in the West Regional first round game. 

Northeastern will face North Dakota in one of the Midwest Regional first round games.

Harvard will play Boston College in one of the Northeast Regional first round games.

The Frozen Four will be held April 7-9 in Tampa Bay. 

EXPRESS PUT RIVERMEN TO BRINK IN BARN BURNER

Express celebrate game 4 win over Mainland division final.

The Coquitlam Express put the disappointment of a 5-0 loss the night before in the rear view mirror with a 5-3 win in game 4 of the Mainland division final.  Coquitlam now leads the best of 7, 3-1.

The fans in attendance were truly treated to an entertaining game made even better seeing the home team win.

The Express fourth line gave the big guns a boost when they opened the scoring on a Jackson Cressey goal set up by Daniel Lange with a shot that hit the leg of a Langley defenceman and got past the glove of Brock Crossthwaite.

It was the first goal of the playoffs from the Express fourth line. It's a great reward for a unit that all season long has provided such valuable minutes.

The Express had their chances to try an extended their lead with Bo Pieper walking out from behind the net to be denied by Crossthwaite. Then Joey Santucci going hard to the net had the rebound of a Jace Hennig slap shot bounce over his stick with a wide open net.

Shortly there after the Rivermen pulled even when Chris Forney fired a shot over the shoulder of a screened Gordie Defiel.

Matt Ustaski gave the Rivermen their first lead of the night when he come out from behind the Express net and was able to bounce the puck past a sprawled out Defiel.

Marc Biega continued his regular season success against the Rivermen in game 4 Tuesday. He scored pinching in from the left point and snapped a show low to the stick side on Crossthwaite.

A series is always about adjustments and the Express come out for the second period after tweaking their lines.

Captain Ryan Rosenthal was taken off line with Corey Mackin and Adam Rockwood. And he was put between the Pieper brothers to give the Express a little more size.

The new combination quickly started to click and generate chances. You couldn't not notice the Express captain on this night creating chances with his speed and powering the puck to the goal.

Before the Pieper's and Rosenthal made their mark on the score sheet the Rivermen took their second lead of the night when Tyson Witala set up Mitch McLain who had a wide open net to bury the puck a a 3-2 lead.

The lead only lasted 2:24 when the Express new line teamed up for the equalizer.

Bo Pieper set up Rosenthal who scored his 7th of the playoffs and the game was even at three.

You couldn't have asked for a more entertaining and evenly played game between these two clubs tonight. They played hard and clean. There was no extra circular activity. Neither team really gave the officials a reason to make any penalty calls.

They gave it all they had with so much on the line depending on the outcome for both teams.

The final 20 minutes was set up for the biggest period of the series for both teams. Was this series going to Langley for game 5 tied at two or with the Express leading 3-1?

The Pieper's and Rosenthal teamed up in the opening minute of the third period to give the Express their second lead of the night. Canon scored on a rebound 31 seconds into the frame for a 4-3 Express lead.

Finally the officials were forced to make a call with 4:20 remaining in the third period when Charlie Pelnik hit Joey Santucci into the boards and his head struck the glass.

On the ensuing power play Marc Biega struck for his second of the night blasting it past Crossthwaite for a 5-3 Express lead. The Express defenceman also had an assist for a 3 point night. Including the regular season, Biega has 8 goals vs. the Rivermen this season.

Gordie Defiel like the team in front of him had a bounce back performance with 31 saves.

The series now shifts back to Langley for game 5 at the Langley Events Centre Thursday with the Express looking to be the first team to punch their ticket to the third round of the playoffs.

Expect nothing more than the team with the BCHL's best record in the regular season to fight hard to defend home ice and save their season much like Prince George did in round one. 

EXPRESS DOUBLE UP SPRUCE KINGS

A much better defensive effort, and a 6 goal explosion did the job for the Express Friday as they took the rematch with the Prince George Spruce Kings winning 6-3 Friday night.

A solid contribution from the top 3 lines and steady goaltending from Gordie Defiel paced the Express on this night.

8 of the top 9 forwards hit the scoresheet for the Express. The only forward of that group to not hit the scoresheet was Cody Boyd but made his presence felt with his physical play.

The top line opened the scoring as captain Ryan Rosenthal slid the puck into the Spruce Kings zone, Alex Murray came out of his crease to play the puck and sweep it behind the net. But the Express captain read the play well and picked off the clearing attempt and quickly set up Adam Rockwood who tapped it home.

Brent Lashuk evened it up for Prince George as he took the puck off the boards and cut into the middle of the ice and snapped a shot low to the glove side past Gordie Defiel.

The Express re-stored their lead before the first period came to an end. Marc Biega led the rush into the Prince George end and fired a shot that snuck through the legs of Murray at 18:21. It was Biega's 6th goal of the season and his 5th on home ice this year.

Marco Ballarin pulled the visitors even early in the second period as he had multiple whacks at the rebound of a Sean Landrey shot before lifting it over Defiel just 53 seconds into the 2nd period.

The tie didn't last 3 seconds as Jace Henning broke out of the Express zone and led the attack and snapped a shot that hit the stick of a Spruce Kings defender and past Murray to put the Express in the lead for a 3rd time at 3-2.

Now the Express began to work at pulling away from Prince George.

Bo Pieper blasted home a one timer on the power play on a set up from his brother Canon to put the Express up a pair.

Just 1:02 later Braiden Epp briefly pulled Prince George back within one on a set up from Mitch Eden.

81 ticks of the clock later the Express again were up by 3 as Joey Santucci buried the rebound of a point shot for a 5-3 Express lead.

Then it was the Pieper brothers teaming up again and this time it was Canon banging home a rebound to put the Express up 6-3.

The line of Joey Santucci and the Pieper brothers teamed up for 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points in the second period.

The third period was fairly uneventful as the Express cruised to victory the rest of the way.

They fired 35 shots on this night while limiting the opposition to just 25 shots on goal.

The Express penalty killing had a bounce back night after getting torched the previous 4 outings killing off all 3 Prince George power plays. The Express power play struck once on their 3 advantages.

They will have a day of rest before playing host to the Vernon Vipers Sunday afternoon. 

EXPRESS WACK THE CHIEFS

The Coquitlam Express matched a season high with 9 goals in a 9-4 win over the Chilliwack Chiefs to sweep a home and home between the Mainland division rivals.

The Express got Chilliwack down early and didn't let them up until the clock struck 0:00 at the end of the third period.

Captain Ryan Rosenthal got the visitors offence rolling in the opening minute as he scored from the slot on the first shot of the game 45 seconds into the contest.

Canon Pieper had a memorable night in the valley with his first BCHL hat-trick. He got his evening kicked off by snapping a shot from the left wing past Chiefs started Josh Halpenny. The goal chased the Chiefs netminder after he allowed 2 goals on 6 shots in the first 12:20 of the game.

Lyndon Stanwood who got the start the night before didn't fare much better. Canon Pieper scored his second of the game shorthanded as he split the Chiefs defence and poked the puck through the legs of Stanwood.

It was the 5th shorthanded goal of the season by the Express which is the most of any team in the BCHL. At the time of the goal, the Express had scored 1 more goal while shorthanded than powerplay goals they had allowed all season.

Jordan Kawaguchi got the Chiefs on the board as he put home a rebound from a Carter Cochrane point shot.

But just 12 seconds later the Express were back up by 3 as Corey Mackin scored his Express leading 8th goal of the season at 18:31.

Pierce Dushenko got his 3rd start of the season in the Express crease. And with his teammates putting 4 on the board in the first period giving him some run support to work with, it's easy to overlook the 20 saves on the 21 Chief shots sent his way in the first period. Some of his best saves came off Mathieu Tibbet and Austin Plevy.

It was more of the same for the Express in the second period.

Marc Biega picked up his first point of the season as his wrister from the point on the powerplay gave the Express a 5-1 lead.

Austin Plevy finally scored his first goal of the season while shorthanded for the Chiefs as he took the puck hard to the net and jammed it under Dushenko.

But like they did in the first period, the Express had a quick response as Bo Pieper who had his first two assists of the season fired a great pass to hit Rosenthal in stride and he cut to the net and tucked the puck past Stanwood for a 6-2 Express lead.

Canon Pieper finished off his hat-trick late in the second period as he came out from behind the Chiefs net and made a spin move and fired off a backhand past Stanwood.

Halpenny came back out to start the third period in the Chiefs crease. And the story didn't change for the hosts. Matthew Barry-Lamontagna scored his second goal of the season as his innocent looking wrister from centre ice wasn't so innocent and it bounced off the blocker of Halpenny and in for an 8-2 Express lead.

Jackson Cressy scored the final goal of the night for the Express as he finished off a great passing play set up by Anthony Gardner's great back door pass.

10 players hit the scoresheet tonight for the Express, 6 had multi point efforts.  The 9 goals matches a season high for most goals in a game set earlier this season in a 9-4 win over Alberni Valley at the Prospera Centre in Chilliwack at the Bauer BCHL showcase.

To close out the night Kyle Westerlingh had Dushenko beat on a penalty shot but put his backhand off the post. Then the Chiefs scored two meaningless goals to cap off the score off the sticks of Andrew Silard and Kurt Black.

The win puts the Express one point back of both Langley and Prince George for first place in the Mainland division. And the two wins also puts the Express 9 points clear of Chilliwack.

The Express finish off the weekend Sunday afternoon in Surrey.