It was heartbreak finishes for a pair of host teams at the 33rd annual Richmond International Bantam/Midget Hockey Tournament.
The Blues came-everso close to capturing the inaugural Bantam Division tier one title, falling 3-2 to the Anaheim Wildcats in Tuesday's championship game at the Richmond Ice Centre.
The tournament provided a refreshing break for Glenn Wheeler's young squad that features a whopping 16 first-year Bantam age players. The end result has been a rocky ride thus far in the extremely competitive top tier of the Pacific Coast Amateur league.
The Blues thrived against different competition in their event, reaching the final with four straight wins before falling to the unbeaten Anaheim team.
Richmond actually took a 2-1 lead into the final period on goals by David Queree and Magnus Cheung before
the Wildcats pulled even with just 2:35 remaining. They completed the comeback on Nick MacRis' unassisted goal at the 3:41 mark of overtime.
Richmond's run to the gold medal game included round-robin wins over Nanaimo (5-3), New
West (3-2) and the Utah Regulators (8-2).
Sean Gulka and Michael Araki-Young each had a goal and two assists in a 5-1 semi-final triumph over the Langley A2 Eagles.
Araki-Young led his team in scoring with 10 points, including three goals.
Gulka added nine while Tom Sweeney chipped in with eight. Jordin Kojima, Cheung and Queree each had three goals.
Meanwhile, the Midget A1 Blues won three of four games and was the only team to knock eventual champion, yet didn't even make the quarter-finals.
Richmond looked to be in solid shape after concluding round-robin play with a spirited 2-0 win over the previously unbeaten Littleton Hawks.
The result left the hosts with a 3-1 record after earlier victories against Burnaby (6-5) and Anaheim (5-1), while falling 4-0 to Prince George. Where things got complicated was Littleton managing a 7-3 win over Prince George, leaving a three-way logjam atop the Raymond Sawada Division with 3-1 records. In the end, the Blues lost out on the goal differential tiebreaker formula.
Littleton would go on to win the championship with a 2-1 victory over the U18 Alaska Wolves. The Colorado team also defeated Prince George 5-1 in the semi-finals.
The Blues closed out the tournament with a 4-3 win over Abbotsford in consolation play.
Icing... The Seafair A1 Blues came ever-so-close to capturing the prestigious 51st annual Burnaby Minor Bantam Christmas Tournament.
The Islanders advanced to the championship game in the 12-team event falling 4-3 in double overtime to the Burnaby Winter Club.
Seafair rolled to roundrobin wins over San Diego (6-0), Arizona (2-0) and Cowichan (5-2).
The locals then took a pair of games from Surrey including a 9-3 rout in the quarter-finals. The unbeaten run continued with a 5-3 triumph over San Diego in the semi-finals.
