The Greater Vancouver Canadians are celebrating after being crowned the Okanagan Classic U18 AAA champions.
The team, based out of the Richmond Olympic Oval, won the Remembrance Day long weekend tournament in Kelowna, which included many strong teams from the BCEHL CSSHL and two from the CBHA in Alberta.
After the round-robins games, two BCEHL teams (the Canadians and the Okanagan Rockets) and the two Alberta teams (the Red Deer Optimist Chiefs and the defending champion Calgary Buffaloes) made it through to the semi-finals.
In the last four, the Rockets fell to the Buffaloes (5-2) and Optimist Chiefs were defeated by the Canadians (6-3).
A tightly-played first period in the final featured some great action and big saves by goaltenders at both ends, before the Buffaloes opened the scoring.
But the Canadians battled back to tie it before the end of the period on a goal by Jonathan Clasby. In the second period, the Canadians came out flying and blew the game open with goals by Matthew Hikida and Mattias Uyeda.
The Canadians added a final goal by Sean Richards in the third period, capping a nice end-to-end rush by Gavin Sangara.
With the score 4-1, the Canadians never looked back and captured the championship banner.
Greater Vancouver Canadians U18 team was:
Jeevin Bal, Jonathan Clasby, Jack Dipaolo, Massimo Fazio, Jamie Hikida, Matthew Hikida, William Huo, Markus Lam, Kieran Lige, Jordan Luk, Dylan Nazareth, Quinn Orr, Brandon Petrie, Remy Quintoro, Sean Richards, Gavin Sangara, Tyler Tse, Mattias Uyeda, Declan Warburton, Isaac Zed.
Manager: Alain Wozney
Coaches: Kyle Spencer (HC), Josh Spencer (AC), Amy Debree (AC) Brent Wheatly (AC), Jessica Bates (Athletic Trainer)
