There was a whole lot of hockey played out at Oceanside Place over the weekend, as 12 teams took to the ice for the local Atom 2011 Spring Tournament
For those following along at home, that’s 196 determined young players aged 9-10 on frozen pond for 26 games in total.
Oceanside had four entries in the tourney (two in each of the two divisions) played out Friday through Sunday — the Blue Demons, the Hornets, the Redwings and the Predators. All the teams played four games — the four finalists played five games in all including two on Sunday.
The Predators were the top local team, going 4-0 in round robin to earn a spot in Sunday afternoon’s gold medal game against the also unbeaten PoCo Warriors, which they lost 4-3, but still earned silver.
The ‘Preds crowned the Powell River 7-0 in the morning game to advance.
“It was a nail-biter,” tournament organizer and Predators’ manager Nicki Bull said after the final, “they went 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and Port Coquitlam scored with like 30 seconds on the clock. It was a great game. Both sides played their hearts out.”
Her son Trevor plays defence for the ‘Preds, which are coached by dad Dean Bull.
“The whole team was looking to help each other out, and our goalie (Jordan Fletcher) stole the show a couple times. It was great,” said Dean.
In the other playoff game, the Redwings went unbeaten at 3-0-1 in the round robin.
Placings are decided by a points system and the Redwings thumped the 4-0 Cowichan Valley Predators 4-2 to bag the bronze medal.
“The kids did great. The bronze medal game was just incredible — the entire team played their hearts out,” said Redwings’ coach Ryan Ogilvie, pointing out centre and leading scorer Jayden Greig fed the net for all four goals in the final.
“And our goalie Logan Wolff (whose cousin Stephen Wolff helped the Jr. B Generals make it past the first round of they VIJHL playoffs) stood on his head.”
The Redwings torched the Nanaimo Devils 8-4 Sunday morning to advance to the medal round.
First year player Matthew Hay was some happy when he scored off a heavy wrister from the point in the second period of that game.
“That was super-huge — he was ecstatic,” chuckled Ogilvie.
As for the tournament overall, “it was really good; we had great feedback all weekend from everybody — the parents were happy with how everything went and the kids were all having fun,” Nicki said Monday, adding each player in attendance received a pair of keepsake tournament boxer shorts, “which were a big hit. Some of the kids were wearing them on their head.”
NEXT UP
The Peewees took to the ice at Oceanside Place Monday for their annual spring break tournament. The finals go today (Tues., March 22).