By / Scott Hill
The Sportsplex Youth Roller Hockey League wrapped up its winter season with its Collier Cup Playoff Tournament. All 48 youth teams were in action Feb. 27 to March 1 vying for the championship in the Tyke, Mite, Squirt, Peewee and Bantam divisions.
Tyke
The Tyke division opened with a ceremonial faceoff to recognize the Spirit of 2010 Hockey Tournaments across B.C., this season. After the festivities were completed, the teams battled hard all weekend. The Scoundrels lived up to their regular season title by claiming a 6-0 victory over the Admirals in the Championship Game while the Crew claimed the Consolation title with a 7-2 victory over the Pirates.
Scoundrels team roster: Gabriel Dahl, Tavjot Dhanoa, Carson Haralds, Tanner Medway, Layne Nyirfa, Dylan Rhodes, Michael Shim, Matthias Dahl, and Coach Ryan Dahl
Mite
The Mite division featured all three lower seeds upsetting the top seeds in the opening round with each game being decided by one goal.
The close games continued all weekend and concluded with the fourth-place Gators emerging as Champions with a 6-2 win over the sixth-place Dawgpac. In the Consolation Game the third-place Wolves defeated the top-seeded Raptors team.
Gators team roster: Nathan Bennett, Nicholas Cosco, Devin Hodgins, Patrick Hutchinson, Justin Marsh, Micheal Moreau, Travis Selje, Tyrell Thomas, Kurtlan Boone, Brandon Peterson and coach Ian Hutchinson
Squirt
Squirt sivision play had 10 teams chasing the title. The top two seeds proved their regular season was no fluke as both teams won their first two games to reach the final.
The Championship Game showed just how close the two teams were as the no. 2 Blades squeaked out a 4-3 win over the no. 1 Bengals.
The Consolation Final saw the ninth-place Voodoo win a low scoring 2-1 game over the 10th place Scorpions.
Blades Team roster: Jackson Campbell, Daniel Bjork, Michael Dekam, Harrison Gordon, Aidan Morgan, Patrick Rogers, Andrew Sayle, Christian Armstrong and coach Martin Sayle.
Peewee
The Peewee division’s top-seeded Thunder were on a mission all weekend. The team came out scoring early and often in game one and kept up the attack all weekend. A determined eighth place Red Army team almost pulled off the upset in the final before falling 6-5 to the top-ranked Thunder team. The Vikings came out on top in the Consolation Final with a solid 6-0 victory over the Hawks.
Thunder team roster: Chris Denton, Kyle Bruce, Duran Lawton, Blake Vetter, Matthew Spence-Brown, Andrew Suttis, Anthony Wright, Colin Farrell, Grant Sayle and coach Russ Bruce.
Bantam
The Bantam division was a mirror image of the Peewee division as the top-seeded Outlaws came out firing in their opening round victory. After a nail-biting overtime win in the semi-finals, the Outlaws faced the no. 8-ranked Grizzlies for the gold medal. This time, the team defence was the difference in a 3-0 shutout win. The Jokers claimed the Consolation with a 3-1 win over the Knights.
Outlaws team roster: Mathieu Bergeron-Bailey, Bryson Caze, Mitch Fabretti, Dylan Goode, Christopher Pilch, TJ Porter, Mark Sawatsky, Brad Zornow, Chris Heyman and coach Norbert Zornow
High School Tournament coming up
Teams are already gearing up for the 2009 BC High School Roller Hockey Tournament set for May 15 to 17, 2009 at the Langley Sportsplex. Games will be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the Provincial Banner on the line.
This will be the seventh Annual edition of the High School Tournament.
Sardis Falcons from Chilliwack are the three-time defending champions of this event, while Walnut Grove Gators from Langley look to improve on their back-to-back silver medals at the tournament.
Each year this tournament has brought out a number of the top inline hockey players in the province for school bragging rights.
Past teams competing have included Sardis, Walnut Grove, Mountain (Langley), Windsor (N. Van), Lambrick Park (Victoria), Belmont (Victoria), Spectrum (Victoria), Claremont (Victoria), South Delta, Clayton Heights (Surrey), Queen Elizabeth (Surrey), Stelly’s (Victoria), Sands (Delta), Seycove (N. Van), and Timberline (Campbell River). |