Every year the Royal Bank Cup comes around and every year the British Columbia representatives are regarded as something of a favourite, aside from those rare times when they don't get past the Alberta champions.
That was certainly the case this year after the Penticton Vees won a Canadian Junior A Hockey League-record 42 games in a row.
Despite a very strong host in the Humboldt Broncos, the Vees were considered by many as the closest thing there is to a lock in such a short tournament.
Fast forward two days into the tournament, though, and Penticton is in a spot of trouble.
In the RBC opener on Saturday afternoon, the Vees lost 2-1 to the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League.
If you'd walked into Penticton in mid-February and told people their team would lose to an outfit from the NOJHL at the RBC, you would have been laughed out of the coffee shop.
On Sunday, the Vees faced the host Broncos in what many surely expected to be a championship game preview.
Humboldt won 3-2 on an overtime winner by Andrew Johnston.
Certainly all is not lost for the BCHL champions, as they had two games left to play entering Tuesday's tilt against the Woodstock Slammers of the Maritime Hockey League.
In a tournament where four of five teams make the playoffs, Penticton might only need one win to squeak in. And literally anything can happen in a one-game playoff - just ask the Pembroke Lumber Kings, who won it all last year after going 1-3 in the round-robin.
Humboldt, meanwhile, was looking to extend its record to 3-0 entering last night's game against the Thunderbirds.
The championship game is on Sunday and will be broadcast on TSN.
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The Southeast Legacy Twins didn't play their first game in Estevan until July 6 last year.
While that scenario should not play out again this year, the team's schedule is trending that way.
The Twins' home opener in Estevan on Friday was rained out. The team is not scheduled to play here again until May 27.
The Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League features high-level ball, but it's hard for fans to get familiar with a team that has its home games split between two communities and also has to battle the weather to get the games in.
Here's hoping the rain leaves the Twins alone this season.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at sports@estevanmercury.ca, on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins Banter blog at estevanmercury.ca/bruinsbanter. Is anyone surprised that Albert Pujols' first home run as an Angel sent the Blue Jays to the loss column?
