Richmond A1 Blues tuned up for their own upcoming international event with a strong showing at the Greater Vernon Minor Hockey Association Midget Rep Tournament over the weekend.
The Blues produced four straight wins to reach the championship game before dropping a 5-2 decision to Kamloops A1. The road to the final included victories over Vernon A1 (4-1), Coquitlam (A1) and Bow Valley A1 (8-4) in round-robin play. Richmond then blanked North Shore Winter Club A1 5-0 in the semi-finals.
The hard-earned medal featured excellent work by Ryan Smith, Connor Coelho, Jordan Allen, Eddie Richardson, Mason Rai, Edvins Jansons, Brady Wang, Byron Leong, Tyler Hait, Adam Gilker, Arjun Badh, Alex Bernardini, Ryan Hart, Paris Jeyachandran, Gabe Mü, Jovan Jankovic and Evan Yang. The team also utilized two call-ups from Richmond Minor’s Bantam A1 team — Dustin Withrow and Josh MacKenzie.
Head coach Glenn Wheeler and assistant Harold Hait now take their squad intro Pacific Coast Tier One league play, leading up to the 34th annual Richmond Minor Bantam Midget International Tournament, slated for Dec. 26-31.
Regular season home games are typically Monday nights (8:45 p.m.) at Minoru’s stadium rink.
