The Sunshine Coast Atom C2 Blues represented the Sunshine Coast Minor Hockey Association on the Jan. 31 weekend in a gritty 12-team “atoMc Tournament” in Chilliwack.
The Blues earned an A for effort in a tough tournament and grew stronger and stronger each game while experiencing everything hockey has to offer young players in the five-game tournament: thrilling defensive ties, super performances, overtime victories and shoot-out wins — to finish in fifth place, despite a highly respectable record that saw them lose only one game. A challenging tournament — you betcha!
The Blues ran on all cylinders during the three days with goaltender Drayden Ashley performing heroics in their opening 1-1 tie Friday night against the Cloverdale Thunderbolts.
Forwards Jonathan (JJ) Ward and Evan Schober set the game’s defensive-minded tempo early with dazzling end-to-end play.
In their first game Saturday, the Blues ran into an amazing unstoppable individual performance by their Chilliwack Blackhawk opponents and fell despite dazzling net minding by Drayden along with the stellar two-way play of forward (Lucky) Lucca Chalmers and the fearless defensive work of Shamus Hindmarch.
The Blues second game Saturday evening earned them a 3-3 tie against another hard-nosed Chilliwack team with the nifty team-first passing from forwards Bryce Pearson and JJ, and a late third period tying goal from Tarun Henderson.
Sunday had the never-say-die Blues in overdrive, earning two gutsy and thrilling tournament ending games.
In the first, end-to-end defensive rushes by Brendan Somogyi and a series of athletic plays by Ryan Moore and Laszlo Istvanffy held the game dead-locked until Jacob Beerling and Adam Cimbala scored shoot-out winners.
Their draining final game played early Sunday evening was equally thrilling. Forwards Evan and Ryan, along with the defensive duo of Micah Van Klinken and Jacob, kept the back-and-forth game knotted up until the Blues finally prevailed in overtime on a quick goal by Adam.
Tired, but satisfied with their winning tournament play, the Blues now continue on in their league playoff quest.
