The Seafair Islanders continue to make the most of their short trip through the tunnel for the Tim Jardine Bantam AAA Hockey Showcase.
For the third time in four years, the Islanders prevailed in South Delta Minor Hockey's 20th annual eight team tournament - this time rallying for 6-5 victory over Prince George on Sunday afternoon at the Ladner Leisure Centre.
The championship game featured the top two teams from the JD Sweid Division as Prince George edged out Seafair for first place honours with a hardfought 2-1 win. This time, both teams were coming off one goal semi-final victories hours earlier, resulting in a wide open affair and several lead changes.
The Islanders took a 3-2 lead into the final period, only to allow Prince George to strike twice. The northern visitors also enjoyed a 5-4 advantage in the late going before running into penalty trouble. Seafair struck for a pair of power play goals, including the game winner from Graham Lynn with three minutes remaining.
"Fatigue was definitely a factor for both teams after those semi-final games," said Islanders coach Ryan Weber. "It's tough to play defensive hockey when you're tired and that resulted in some fire wagon hockey.
"The key for us was having three lines that was producing which is so important in a tournament with that many games in a short period of time so you're not relying on three or four guys doing all of your scoring."
Seafair was led up front by the eight goal performance of Mitchell Lavoie while Jordan
Sandhu was prominent in a playmaking role with seven assists and nine points. He is the younger brother of Tyler Sandhu who enjoyed a standout career with Seafair and is now in the Western Hockey League with the Everett Silvertips.
"They are different type of players," said Weber who is also a fixture with the B.C. Hockey Best Ever Program coaching staff. "Tyler was a very dynamic goal scorer where Jordan is more of an all-round player who is very responsible in his own end of the rink."
The Islanders' line-up features 11 returnees and just three firstyear Bantam rep players. Among them is blueliner Courtney Vorster - one of the few girls in the province playing at the top level of boys Bantam hockey.
"She has earned every minute of her ice time and I would say has had the biggest learning curve of any player on our team. She is an excellent, skater, is smart with the puck and has the size to play at this level.
"She wants to play women's NCAA hockey down the road and believes her progress will be the fastest playing (boys A1 rep hockey)."
Lynn finished the tournament with six points, including a pair of goals. Andrew Kemp had a goal and four assists, while Joshua Bourne had four points, including three goals. Brandon Lum also had four points, with two goals. Keaton Bonie and Ty Taylor each made three starts in net.
The team also features: Kameron Gill, Craig Scanlon, Samuel Kemp, Seth Wong-Hen, Julius Zhang, Kyle Ahlfield, Nick Marsh, Elliot Stowe and Marcus Sybounmy. The coaching staff includes assistants Russ Weber and Jordan Oye.
