RINK Hockey Academy Kelowna has won their first Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL) U18 Prep Western Championship.
RHA Kelowna defeated Delta Hockey Academy 7-3 Sunday to wrap up the 2025 CSSHL Western Championships, capturing their third CSSHL Championship in 2025. The win gives RHA Kelowna 10 Championships in the programs history.
It was a chaotic U18 Prep Western Championships as the Top 8 seeds were all knocked out in the Round Robin.
RHA Kelowna came in as the 11th seed, losing their opening game to 15th ranked RHA Winnipeg. They would beat second ranked Pacific Coast Hockey Academy and seventh ranked St. George’s to finish to conclude the Round Robin a top their pool. They would then beat ninth ranked South Alberta Hockey Academy in overtime in the semi-finals to punch their ticket to the finals.
Delta would grab the lat spot in the playoffs, coming in as the 16 seed. They would lose their opener to 12th ranked Shawnigan Lake School before beating eighth ranked BWC Academy and first ranked Northern Alberta Xtreme to head to the semi-finals. In the semi’s they would defeat tenth ranked Prairie Hockey Academy in a thrilling 7-6 hockey game.
The cinderella run looked set to continue for Delta as they lead 1-0 after 20 on a Jacob Schwartz (2G) goal, his second of the Championships.
Ryan Sadovia tied the game 12:11 into the second but Alexander Laing found Cruz Waltze in the slot just 32 seconds later to put Delta back ahead. RHA Kelowna would put their foot on the gas to close out the period as Brady Walker (1G, 1A) tied the game and goals from Theo Salikhov and Benjamin Bowtell (1G, 2A) 2:01 after Walker tied it, put RHA Kelowna ahead 4-2 going into the final period.
RHA Kelowna continued to apply pressure in the third as Riley Pederson (1G, 2A) put them ahead 5-2 6:14 into the period. Delta refused to go away quietly as Schwartz beat Conner Nicolson (24/27) on the power play 2:16 later to close the gap to two.
However, it was all RHA Kelowna from there as Maddox Gandha and Ruben Stone (1G, 1A) scored 1:19 apart in the closing stages to secure the 7-3 RHA Kelowna victory.
