The Gibsons and Area Community Centre was home to Hockey Day on the Coast last Sunday, Jan. 16, and it was a day of great hockey filled with Sunshine Coast victories.
The day was in support of the Sunshine Coast Hockeyville 2011 bid. Hockeyville is a contest run by Kraft and CBC every year to find the community with the most hockey passion. The winning community wins $100,000 in arena upgrades and a NHL pre-season game the following season.
The day started out with the Peewee C2 team playing North Van C12. The Coast was down 2-0 when the tides turned after two Nick Stinchcombe goals, ensuring the game would end in a hard-fought tie.
After Robyn Jacques belted out a stunning version of O Canada, the Atom A Blues took to the ice against the Vancouver T-Birds.
Always a close game, the Blues were inspired to score some goals.
Evan Robinson took a great pass from Julian Miles and scored his first of the season, and Kai Gerler kept up the pace, scoring the goal off a pass from Andrew Hunt.
Later in the game, Kai continued to rack up the points by feeding a great shot to Julian Miles, who completed the pass for a goal. Tyler Stinchcombe saw his name on the score sheet twice as he assisted Austin Fournier's goal and then weaved his way from deep in his team's end for an unassisted goal. Geo Wilson was hot in goal, looking more like a back catcher with all the glove saves he made, as the Blues were full value in their 5-2 win.
Although Robyn was a hard act to follow, a group of Sunshine Coast hockey moms took to the microphone for their rendition of O Canada before the third game between the Peewee Blues and Vancouver.
Magnus Manson was stellar in net, and Cam McAllister worked hard for his hat trick, leading the Blues to a 6-2 victory.
To start off the fourth game of the day, Kathy Worsfold sang O Canada with heart and soul.
The Bantam Blues came out a little flat and were behind by one at the end of the first against Richmond, but the second and third periods were all Blues. Brennan Meyers led the scoring with a hat trick, while Ben Myrink scored two goals in the 8-3 win. Therin Hemstalk, Nolan Caldwell and Kyle Bergh added singles, while Tyler Graham picked up four assists.
With successful results coming from all four games, our own Don Cherry (Nick Stinchcombe) was kept busy doing post-game player interviews. That footage will by used to make a video submission for Hockeyville.
Other activities included a hockey trivia contest and the Kraft dinner challenge. Hockey moms made their best KD recipes and the kids tasted and voted for the best. Although the chocolate cake was absolutely delicious (it had KD blended into it), it was Christina Smethurst's Tex Mex Bake that won the prize. The Food Bank was also a winner as a huge box of food was collected.
All in all, it was a great day of community support for Coast kids and the Hockeyville submission. What is needed now is for people to go to the website and submit their hockey stories. Two communities from each region will be chosen on March 8, forming the top 10. Following that round, there will be a period of public voting that will narrow the field to five communities.
Submissions can be made at www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hockeyville/home/en/index.shtml. You can also join the Facebook page and receive updates. For more details on Hockeyville, contact Brenda Rowe at 604-740-7834.
