Maurice Hamlin is facing one hefty tab at the Richmond Keg and he doesn't mind one bit.
One of the perks of his highly successful juvenile program with the Richmond Minor Hockey Association is offering a steak and lobster dinner if the team of 18-and-20-year-olds happen to win it all.
For the third straight year, Hamlin's credit card is about to take a big hit.
The Blues capped a memorable week in their own backyard by capturing the provincial title with a 3-1 win over the host Seafair Islanders in front of about 700 fans on Sunday night at Minoru Arena. Richmond not only went unbeaten at the championships (6-0) but also went through the entire post-season without a loss, a stretch covering 11 games (9-0-2).
"It's a small price to pay to have a good time with a great group of kids," said Hamlin of the pending dinner. "They really moulded together and played as a team when it mattered the most. We couldn't be more proud of them."
The final featured two men who have poured a huge amount of their time into coaching minor hockey and are still doing it at a level that offers little in the way of fanfare.
Hamlin's work was recog-nized two years ago when he was named B.C. Amateur Hockey's coach-of-the-year while Derek Chichak is arguably Seafair Minor's most successful coach. The majority of his players have been with him since the initiation level and, like Hamlin, is still coaching with his sons not on the team.
A year ago, the two local squads also met in the gold medal game with Richmond needing overtime to win in dramatic fashion. It's only fitting the two rivals would meet again with the tournament being held on home ice but it still took quite an effort to get there.
The Blues quickly jumped into the driver's seat by edging Seafair 2-1 in the opening game of the championships, then took care of their next two biggest hurdles - Burnaby Winter Club (5-1) and Surrey (5-3). A spot in the final was sealed even before Richmond dumped Winfield 7-0 in its final round-robin game Sunday morning.
The road was much more complicated for the Islanders who rebound from the loss to the Blues with a 3-2 win over BWC and battled Surrey to a 2-2 draw. Their fate wasn't known until late Sunday afternoon when BWC and Surrey played to a 1-1 tie and they produced a 7-0 triumph over winless Nanaimo.
Following a scoreless opening 20 minutes, the teams exchanged second period goals with Seafair pulling even on a shorthanded breakaway tally in the dying seconds of the frame. What could have been the momentum changer instead provided motivation for the Blues who got the game winner from Connor Martyniuk and an insurance marker two minutes later.
"We had some first year kids who had never played in a game like that before with that kind of crowd. I told them to calm down and just go out and play our game," said Hamlin of the pivotal final period.
"I think our conditioning really paid off for us. We spend every practice working on our breakout and transition game."
Hamlin was equally proud his squad was received the Fair Play Award as the most sportsmanlike team of the tournament, judged by on and off ice officials.
Still, becoming the first team since the inception of the juvenile division in the early 1970s to win three straight provincial titles was something he wasn't counting on back at the start of the season.
"I figured with eight guys gone we would be in tough and at Christmas we were crapping the bed most nights," laughed Hamlin who once again has his son Richard as part of his coaching staff. "It then suddenly all came together for us.
The Blues team also includes goalies - Cole Chreptyk and Adam Wickham; defencemen Zach Ahnert, Brett Dubbert, Adam Madrussan, Colton Marenette, Ben Woodward, Nash Hilliaret and forwards Michael Avery, Jackson Beavis, Brett Falconer, Dylan Ferguson, Scott Fleming, Issey Lamb, Trevor Lum, Tony Marra, Jesse Parks, Travis Robinson, Chad Tasaka and Corey Tasaka. Rounding out the coaching staff are Adam Phillppe and Jeremy McKeowan.
