Richmond Midget C3 Blues hockey team earned double gold medals over the holiday season - capturing the Richmond Midget "C" and Vancouver Minor Canucks Place Charity Tournaments in consecutive weeks.
In Richmond, the Blues went undefeated through round-robin play, defeating Port Coquitlam 3-1, North Delta 3-1, Seattle 8-3 and Surrey C4 6-0. This set the team up for the playoffs with quarter-final date against Langley.
After a tight two periods of play, Richmond managed a 5-2 victory.
In the semi-finals, the opponents were a strong Richmond C1 team. Despite being shorthanded for much of the second period, the C3s pulled out the win. At the same time, Richmond C5 was squeezing out a overtime victory over Richmond C2, setting up the all-Richmond final.
In the final, Richmond C5 ran out of steam and the C3s went on to a decisive 6-0 victory to secure the tournament championship. Both teams celebrated on the ice at the end of the game, realizing that on any given day, either could have won.
At the Vancouver tournament, a tired Blues team started out with a 4-1 win over Surrey C6 and a 7-1 victory over Ridge Meadows C6, before facing their toughest challenge in a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Surrey C2.
The locals' final round robin game was a 9-0 win over a depleted Vancouver C2 team. This left them in first place in their pool and a berth in the championship game. The final was against Seattle Junior, who started strong, but eventually dropped a 7-2 decision.
The C3 Blues are captained by stalwart defenseman Kevin Coates while the assistants are Matt Lee, Evan Braun, Ryan Molina and Ryan Kollmuss. The rest of the team includes goalies, Danica Lum and Justin Kucheran; along with skaters Emerson Chan, Ryley Hamson, Sam Kiang, Shawn Purewal, Sebastian Robitaille, Colton Rodger, Jinder Sandhar, Nick Seto, Chris Sipsas, Jerry So and Conph Zhi.
The team is capably coached by Jim Seto, with assistants Roger Hamson and Yu-Zhi Kiang; and managed by Lily Hamson.
