It was an encouraging opening weekend performance by a team looking to return to the upper echelon of the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League.
The Greater Vancouver Canadians are coming off a subpar season by their standards that saw them scrape into the playoffs with a 14-20-6 record then get dominated in a quarter-final series sweep by eventual champion Valley West Hawks.
Seven players have returned and seem determined to get the Canadians back to their winning ways.
They battled perennial powerhouse Vancouver Northwest Giants to a 3-3 tie on Saturday night in North Vancouver, then saw a comeback fall short the next morning at the Richmond Olympic Oval in a 5-4 defeat.
Fourth-year assistant Mike Twaites has assumed the head coaching duties for now while head coach/GM Phil Alalouf is on the mend from ankle surgery.
“It was good to see the boys come together and get at it this weekend,” said Twaites. “There is still a lot of work to do out there. We had a couple of breakdowns (Sunday) that resulted in some quick goals for them and we had to play catch-up the rest of the way.
“We showed we can compete with them. It’s good to get the schedule going and now we have everybody back and practising together.”
Team captain Scott Atkinson recently re-joined the team after being a late cut of the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings. The 16-year-old is one of seven forwards in the Canadians line-up who are 6-feet or better.
The impressive size, playing an aggressive forechecking system, is going to have a big part in the team’s success and it was evident against the Giants. Seven goals in the weekend series against an elite opponent was encourag-ing for a team that averaged just 2.5 per contest a year ago.
Twaites says the team will be leaning offensively on Atkinson, along with 15-year-old rookies Henry Rybinski and Sasha Mutala. Other returning forwards include 16-year-old Richmond products Michael Araki-Young and Chris Douglas, along with 17-year-olds Noah Kelly and Michael Matson.
The blueline features second-years Thomas Von Schoenberg and Nathan Kelly, while Lukas Shaw is back between the pipes to share the crease load with Nic Hoem.
“We have some great size and we just have to use it a little bit more to our advantage,” continued Twaites. “The boys love to get (in opponents’) way, create a little havoc and space for themselves. We have a good of players who have come into the team and a returning core we can work around.”
The Canadians must also take advantage of a top end loaded home schedule coming out of the gate.
They play their next six games at the Richmond Olympic Oval, starting Friday against the Okanagan Rockets which is part of the league’s Showcase Weekend. Game one is at 6 p.m. and they meet again Saturday at 9:45 a.m.
Games featuring 10 of the league’s 11 teams will take place Friday through Sunday.
