For teams 360 kilometres apart from one another, the Richmond Blues and Kamloops Lions have built up quite a rivalry.
For the second time this season, the Blues and Lions squared off in a tournament final, this time the Midget A1 championship game at the 34th annual Richmond Bantam Midget International. Just like they did back in November in Vernon, Kamloops prevailed over Richmond, topping the hosts 5-1 on New Year’s Eve at Minoru Arenas.
The Lions scored twice before the game was even four minutes old and never looked back to complete a perfect 7-0-0 run in the tournament. They had opened up a 3-0 second period advantage before Alex Bernardini provided Richmond with some much-needed momentum. However, Kamloops restored its three-goal cushion, just over three minutes later, and extended the margin on Jackson Scott’s second of the game before the intermission.
The Blues were trying to win host association just its second tournament title in the last 17 years and first since 2011.
Glenn Wheeler’s squad went 4-1 in round-robin play, then secured a spot in the gold medal game with a pair of wins in the playoff-round, including an impressive 3-2 semi-final triumph overly the previously undefeated Prince George Cougars.
The same two teams had met 24 hours earlier to conclude preliminary play and the Cougars rolled to a dominating 7-1 victory. With much more at stake in the rematch, Richmond got a pair of goals from Bernardini and excellent goaltending from Ryan Smith to prevail.
Bernadini scored what proved to be the game winner with 6:48 remaining. The Cougars pulled within one in the final minute of play, at last solving Smith after he had surrender their first goal just 74 seconds into the contest. Edvins Jansons had the other Blues tally.
Bernadini led his team in tournament scoring with eight points, including five goals. Other Richmond scorers included Arjun Badh, Ryan Hart, Evan Yang, Sam Twaites, Jeremy White, Gabe Mu, Paris Jeyachandran and Jovan Jankovic. Other Blues skaters are Mason Rai, Brady Wang, Adam Gilker, Tyler Hait, Byron Leong and Eddie Richardson. The goaltending duties were also shared by Connor Coelho and Jordan Allen.
Richmond will now turn its attention back to league play and a rival much closer to home. The locals own a solid 8-3-1 record and the team they are trying to catch at the top is the unbeaten Seafair Islanders (9-0-3). The teams are slated to meet next Saturday at Minoru (6:45 p.m.)
Icing…
Other tournament division winners included: Okanagan Hockey Academy (Major Midget), South Delta Storm (Midget tier two), Nanaimo (Bantam tier one) and Saanich Braves (Bantam tier two).
