Sunshine Coast hockey players were busy last weekend playing at several tournaments across the Lower Mainland.
The Atom Rep Blues finished their Christmas holidays in style at an eight-team tournament in West Vancouver at the Hollyburn Country Club.
Friday afternoon saw the Blues test the waters with a game against Victoria, and it proved to be a fairly easy 6-1 win. Tyler Zavaglia's strong two-way play earned him player of the game.
On Saturday morning the Blues faced a tougher battle against a North Vancouver team. These two well-matched squads battled up and down the ice, but the big story was the goalies, who each received player of the game. It actually turned out to be the coming-out party for the glove of Blues goalie Karson Partridge. He repeatedly made spectacular flashes of the leather, leaving onlookers shaking their heads and cheering.
Game two on Saturday was against the host Hollyburn Huskies, who showed the Blues why they are tiered above in league play. The Blues played hard, but went down 2-0 quickly.
They came back to score four unanswered goals only to then surrender six in a row. Even a red-hot goalie glove couldn't stop the Huskies, who won 8-5, giving them the pool's first-place position. Captain Jaden Fodchuk received the player of the game.
Sunday morning saw the Blues face the first-place Vancouver squad from the second pool. Unfortunately for the Blues, quite possibly their best set-up player, Brandon Bezaire, had to sit this one out after a fall into the boards during the previous game. Vancouver skated its way to a decisive 7-2 win. Player of the game was Ethan Geue.
Meanwhile the two Peewee C teams played at a large tournament in Surrey.
With 20 teams out to win, the competition was tight.
The Peewee C2 team won its opener 6-3 and had a nice 2-0 shutout in its second game behind goalie Nolan McKenna, who recorded his second shutout of the season. Defenceman Finn Brooks said, "the whole team really jelled and supported each other nicely throughout the tournament."
Santa brought this team a new player for Christmas, Keegan Lindsay, who played his first ever organized hockey game in the tournament opener. The entire team played their hearts out, falling just short of victory in the final game.
The Peewee C1 team recorded one win, two ties and a loss, which was good enough to take it into the semifinals. The reason for success was the hard work by all the forwards and stalwart defence by Chris, Brett, Jonah and Rishi, along with some tremendous goaltending by Liam Allen. They played against a tough team from Chilliwack in the semifinals, losing 2-0.
Overall the Sunshine Coast was well represented at the tournament, as other coaches even mentioned that the peewee teams were highly competitive and had great sportsmanship.
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