It was a near miss for one of the host teams at the 37th annual Richmond International Bantam Midget Hockey Tournament.
The Richmond Bantam A1 Blues reached the championship game of the Bantam 3-4 Division before dropping a 3-0 decision to the Surrey Thunder on New Year’s Eve at the Richmond Ice Centre.
Surrey broke open a tight defensive battle with a pair of goals in less than a minute in the second period to open up a 3-0 lead. That was more than enough to cap a perfect 5-0-0 run in the tournament.
The Blues reached the title game by doubling up the North Delta Sun Demons 4-2 in the semi-finals. Timothy Woo’s second period goal broke a 2-2 deadlock. Nathan Chu added an insurance goal. Kurtis Chee and Arjun Randhawa also scored.
Richmond had opened round-robin play with a 4-0 loss to Surrey. The hosts battled back into contention with wins over U14 Everett Junior Silvertips (9-0), West Sound Warriors (14-0) and North Delta (6-1). Braeden Sihota led the team in scoring with 14 points.
It was also a solid showing for Richmond Minor in the Midget Tier Two Division. The A1 Blues rebounded from a pair of losses to reach the quarter-finals before falling 4-1 to the Vancouver A1 Thunderbirds.
They opened with setbacks to Surrey (7-3) and 16U Portland Junior Winterhawks (5-2) before posting wins over a pair of California teams — California Wave U16AA (11-5) and Santa Clara Blackhawks U16 (7-1) — to secure a playoff berth.
The Seafair A1 Islanders’ bid to reach the Midget Tier One championship game for the second straight year ended with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to the Saanich Braves.
The Vancouver Island squad opened up a 2-0 lead before Brice Kemp cut the margin in half in the second period. A third period insurance tally sealed the win. The Braves went on to lose to Chilliwack in the championship game of the 23-team division.
The Islanders earlier went 3-1 in round-robin play with wins over the Mission Stars (3-1), Portland 18A AAA Winterhawks (6-1) and the Comox Valley Chiefs (4-1). They also dropped a 3-1 decision to Nanaimo.
Seafair’s Midget A2 team went 2-2 in round-robin play, while the Bantam A2s were 1-3.
Icing….
It took a massive volunteer effort to pull off the 75-team tournament that lasted for six days with so many stepping away from holiday time with their families to make it a reality.
The RIBMHT is the signature event of the Richmond Minor Hockey Association and a huge economic benefit to the City of Richmond given over half the entries are out-of-town teams.
It no doubt will continue under the new Richmond Minor/Seafair merged association which will be up-and-running for the 2018-19 season.
