Home ice provided little in the way of an advantage at the 35th annual Richmond International Bantam Midget Hockey Tournament.
The holiday event, hosted by the Richmond Minor Hockey Association, was once again a big success with 60 teams from both sides of the border competing five divisions. However, by the time the playoff round got underway last Wednesday not one local team was still in championship contention despite large representation from both of the city’s associations.
The Richmond Blues and Seafair Islanders entered the Midget Tier One competition as two of the frontrunners in top flight of regular season play in the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association.Yet both got off to slow starts and their fates were determined by day three of the tournament.
A lack of firepower proved to the Blues undoing as they opened play with a 3-1 loss to league rival Cloverdale on Boxing Day. Matt Ast’s goal less than three minutes into the contest was the only goal the hosts could muster. Cloverdale would go on to reach the championship game before falling to North Shore Elite.
Richmond dominated the Alaska Arctic Lions the following day but still only managed a 3-2 win on goals by Jonah Cheung, James Houston and Mason Rai.
The Blues were still in a must-win mode in their Monday morning encounter with Abbotsford. The Fraser Valley squad jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead on its way to a 5-3 upset win. The locals enjoyed a lengthy two man advantage in the third but couldn’t cut into the deficit.
Richmond then closed out the tournament with consolation losses to Vancouver Thunderbirds (5-3) and California Wave U16 AAA Wave (4-0).
It was an ironically similar path traveled by the Islanders who also dropped a 3-1 decision to North Vancouver in a tough match-up right out of the gate.
Next was the Kelowna Junior Rockets who handed Seafair a 3-0 loss. The Saanich Braves then sealed the Islanders’ fate in a 5-3 defeat, despite a pair of goals from Isaiah Harms and a solo marker by Mitchell Lavoie.
Seafair concluded round-robin play with a 4-0 setback to the California Wave, before salvaging a 5-2 win in consolation action against the Kamloops Lions.
Lavoie led the way with a pair of goals. Justin Getz, Jordin Kojima and Brandon Lum had the others.
The North Shore Winter Club Elite were crowned division champions after a 6-2 win over Cloverdale.
The Richmond A1 Blues at least flirted with a playoff berth in the Bantam Tier 2 Division.
The Blues opened play with a 3-1 win over Cloverdale A2 on goals by Austin Gounder, Diego Montinola and Ryan Xu. The hosts then fell 10-2 to the Alaska AA Oilers, before rebounding with a 5-4 victory over Semiahmoo A2.
That set the stage for a must win against the Portland Junior Winterhawks and the American side prevailed 4-2.
Alaska went on to defeat Golden State Elite Eagles in the division final 3-2.
Golden State captured Bantam Tier One honours with an entertaining 4-3 win over the Delta Hockey Academy Bantam Varsity #2 in a showdown of unbeaten teams.
The Prince George Cougars won the Major Midget crown with a 3-0 triumph over the Okangan Hockey Academy.
Semiahmoo 15s took Midget Tier 2 honours with a 2-1 win over Alaska 16AA Oilers.
