The Sunshine Coast Atom Ducks had a strong showing at the Christmas Thunderbird tournament held at 8 Rinks in Burnaby.The Ducks finished second in their pool of five teams after round robin play, with a record of 3-1. They were faced with larger and sometimes more aggressive teams, but they showed grit by battling back and never giving up. The team displayed excellent sportsmanship and team camaraderie throughout the tournament. In the quarter final, they came out with enthusiasm, but ended up losing out to a strong positional team from Portland. Strong play by all the players resulted in nine out of 10 skaters scoring goals throughout the tournament. Game one saw Jacob Huson open the scoring. He then added the game winner in game 3. Linemate Myles Killackey was able to force two goals with strong forechecking. Trevor Julius had team high five goals and assisted on many others. Evan Hagedorn had a two-goal game by being in the right place to put in the rebounds. Jessica Poulsen had a strong tournament and kept on her checks, never giving up. Spirited play by the three players brought up from the novice team resulted in Jarred Bothwell getting two goals and Nevan Flay getting three. Oliver Gould had a strong tournament in net. Oliver made 30 saves in game one. Strong defensive play shut down the opposition and produced excellent end-to-end rushes with goals by Keynon Brown and Nick Shoji, who each scored a pair, and Kaiden deRoon who added a single.
Game MVPs included Keynon, Oliver, Trevor Julius, Myles and Nick.
The team had fun and raised their play to a new level. The players are looking forward to the next tournament in North Delta during Spring Break.
