The Seafair Islanders sure know how to deal with a little adversity.
Coming off their first loss of the season, the province’s top ranked Bantam rep hockey team captured Victoria Racquet Club’s 45th annual Rick Lapointe Memorial Tournament on the weekend. The Islanders capped an unbeaten run with a dominating 6-0 victory over the Camrose Red Wings.
The teams had met earlier in the tournament and battled to a 1-1 draw. This time, the Islanders were in complete control, outshooting their Alberta opponent 36-13.
Michael Abgrall led the way with two goals and one assist. Linemate Jayden Uy also enjoyed a three-point game with a goal, while Jacob Bonkowski scored twice. Dominic Passalacqua had the other Seafair tally. Goaltender Dylan Tsang earned the shutout.
Uy led the tournament in scoring with 13 points, including seven goals. Abgrall finished with six goals.
The Seafair roster also featured: Josh Wessels, Davis Sato, Austin Kofler, Jacob Bonkowski, Carson Bigras, Thomas Tien, Ethan Riesterer, Tate Taylor, Tyler Matsuo, Ethan Yodogawa, Joshua Mori, Nico Fromm-Delorme, Ryan Bal, and Ajeet Gundarah.
The Islanders opened with a 7-2 win over the Saanich Braves and also slipped past Chilliwack 4-3 before defeating Langley 6-2 in the semi-finals. That was a rematch of the Seafair Icebreaker final back in October that saw the hosts win in a shootout.
Since then, they had been on a major roll that included 10 straight wins in PCAHA Tier One League play. That was until they were surprised 4-1 on home ice by Semiahmoo, three days prior to the Victoria tourney. It was the first loss dating back over 20 games, including pre-season and tiering play.
“I could feel the erosion coming in our game,” said head coach Steve Robinson moments after the loss. “We played a game a few nights ago in Langley where we ended up winning 6-4 but I was driving home wondering how did we win that game? We were down 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3.”
Robinson felt the loss would serve his players well moving forward and that was certainly evident in Victoria. They also returned to league play Tuesday with a dominating 7-1 win over fourth-place Ridge Meadows.
Two more PCAHA regular season encounters next week will be followed by the Pat Quinn Classic in Burnaby over the holidays where the Islanders have been asked to move up to the Bantam Elite Division after initially entering the “AAA” tier.
They will see a steady diet of academy programs and are the only public association entry at that level. Academy teams are considered to have a distinct advantage with no player boundary rules. Defending champion Delta Hockey Academy Greens, for example, have a roster that features talent from Oregon, Edmonton, Vancouver Island and five Metro Vancouver cities.
“The AAA Division is no push over but at the same token most of these guys are here trying to aspire to something and figure we would do it,” added Robinson. “We might end up 2-2 or whatever, but at the end of the day the kids will get more from it.”
