By Graham Perkins /
ATOM
The Atom A1 team finished off its league play last week with a 1-2 record in the second tier of the Final Four.
The club opened the series on a high note with a convincing 5-3 win over Whistler A1. The victory set them up for a must-win game against BWC A4 if they wanted to clinch the title.
There was a special kind of buzz for the game that wasn’t just because of the high stakes; the puck dropped just two hours after Canada beat the U.S. in the gold medal game.
The boys started the game off on the right foot when they notched the crucial first goal, but they ran into an old nemesis they hadn’t seen since early in the regular season: penalty trouble.
“We spent 20 minutes in the penalty box and just couldn’t get any flow going,” said head coach Darryl Mah. “It’s frustrating, obviously. Basically the winner of that game would have won the championship.”
The loss took a lot of the wind out of the team’s sails, and in the final game against the Vancouver Thunderbirds the boys let the foot off the gas in a 6-3 loss. However, there were some positives to come out of the game, such as defenseman Nicholas Georgeopolous getting bumped up to forward and scoring his first goal of the season.
Captain Anthony Benevoli had a solid tournament all around, leading the team offensively.
“We had a fantastic run since Christmas, and I think the boys exceeded all the expectations of the coaching staff. In the end it wasn’t what we wanted because we were looking for a championship, but I think they all learned a lot from this experience. To be in the Final Four was a huge accomplishment, and in the end we just came up one game short.”
PEEWEE
The Peewee A1 team was preparing to end its league play with a bang, but in the end only managed a whimper.
The squad boasted a record of 4-1 in the Presidents series going into the final two games against Chilliwack and Surrey, and needed only a win and a sportsmanship point to claim the banner.
Instead, they lost both games along with both sportsmanship points to finish third in the eight-team group. Respectable, but clearly not the result they were hoping for.
“It was disappointing. We went through the first five games playing disciplined hockey, then in the last two games, we lost our discipline,” said head coach Rusty Wills.
The final game against Surrey was a heartbreaker. Burnaby scored the first goal, but weren’t able to generate any offence afterwards and spent the rest of the game hemmed in the defensive zone.
The undisciplined play didn’t just hurt the team by forcing them to kill off penalties. Halfway through the Surrey game, one of the club’s best offensive players was ejected after a kneeing penalty. Add that to the fact that the team’s captain suffered an eye injury earlier in the week that forced him to sit out, and the club was like a cat without any claws every time they entered the offensive zone.
“All the chances we got were from the perimeter. We had to get more action to their net,” Wills said.
The disappointment following the Presidents Series was only temporary, however. The club entered itself into the Ridge Meadows Peewee tournament that kicked off this past Monday, with Burnaby getting the better of Saanich 4-2. The club was slated to face off against a tough Juan de Fuca team on Tuesday following an afternoon showdown against North Delta, who the club defeated in the first round of the playoffs.
“It’s a single game elimination, but I expect us to get to the Final Four,” Wills said.
BANTAM
The Bantam A1 team wasn’t able to have its ideal finish to the regular season.
The club ended its Presidents series run on a three-game skid, losing twice to Ridge Meadows and closing with a tight 5-4 defeat at the hands of Cloverdale.
The second game against Ridge Meadows was punctuated by a checking from behind penalty that cost the club its sportsmanship point.
Burnaby finished at the bottom of the four-team group six and were put at a disadvantage almost immediately when one of the clubs top offensive threats, Luke Laurino, was hit into the boards awkwardly in the second game of the series and suffered a broken wrist.
Laurino joined two of his teammates on the injured list, and was hopeful to return in time for the 33rd annual Port Coquitlam Bantam tournament that the club entered into and was set to play in.
One thing the injuries didn’t affect was the team’s enthusiasm. Head coach Richard Taki said the boys were still just as eager to come to the rink as ever, and were enjoying the dry land sessions as well as practice.
MIDGET
The Midget A3 team has a lot to celebrate after the team clinched the Presidents Series banner in Group 1.
The boys posted a record of 5-2-3 and received all but two of their sportsmanship points to secure the victory.
It turned out to be a tight race, with Vancouver and Mission finishing only two points behind the Spirit. In the final two games, Burnaby faced off against both teams and fought to a 2-2 draw each time, ensuring the title was theirs.
It was a nice way to cap off the season after the squad was ousted from Final Four contention back in January when they were trounced 10-0 by New Westminster.
The title is also a huge boost for the club considering the rough ride it had during the regular season. Playing in Tier 6, the team finished with a record of 7-11 to finish seventh in the nine-team tier.
However, they were only outscored by seven goals all season and proved they could play tight against some of the best teams in the league. Out of the 11 losses, only two were by more than two goals. |