The Richmond Blues weren’t interested in going through the backdoor to be part of this week’s Provincial Juvenile Hockey Championships.
As hosts, the Blues have known all along they would be part of the six-team event that gets underway on Thursday at Minoru Arenas’ stadium rink. Yet, they will look to cap off a dominating season in style, having already won Pacific Coast Amateur regular season and playoff banners.
“The boys wanted to earn their spot and prove they belong there,” said Blues head coach Harold Hait.
The Blues were the only top regular seed that managed to lock up a provincial berth. They captured the PCAHA flight one title with a 12-6-4 record, then added the Blue Group playoff crown with an unbeaten 2-0-1 run that included lopsided wins over Coquitlam (8-1) and North Delta (10-3).
Langley (10-8-4) was only the other Lower Mainland team to advance to the provincials with a winning regular season record North Van (10-11-1) earned its spot with a runner-up finish in the Blue Group, while Coquitlam (6-14-2) advanced with a second place finish in the Gold Group. The final berth went to Port Coquitlam — a flight two team that edged Ridge Meadows 5-4 in a sudden-death playoff game.
The Blues know all about upsets. Last year, they finished with an even better regular season record (16-5-1) but a 1-1-1 mark wasn’t good enough to advance beyond the final four.
“There were lots of surprises,” continued Hait. “In recent years there doesn’t seem to be a significant difference between the flight one and two teams.”
The Blues line-up includes seven players slated to graduate from the 18-to-20-year-old division — providing an added incentive to win a provincial title on home ice to conclude their hockey careers.
The team has relied on skill and speed for its success and hopes to take advantage of the large Minoru ice surface which has been the Blues home all season.
“We definitely like to play a fast game more than being physical,” added Hait. “Minoru is the biggest rink we have played in this year and that extra space works in our favour.”
The tournament format sees all six teams square off over the four days and the top two records meet in Sunday’s championship game at 7:30 p.m.
