The Seafair Islanders are riding their dominant season to the B.C. Hockey’s Bantam Tier One Provincial Championships in Nanaimo.
The Islanders will head to Vancouver Island March 19-22 looking to complete an outstanding campaign in style after capturing last weekend’s Pacific Coast Amateur Final Four Playoff Championships in Abbotsford thanks to three straight wins.
Seafair opened the playdowns with a 3-0 victory over the North Shore Winter Club on Friday night then actually locked up the banner and a B.C. berth on Saturday with a 7-1 win over Ridge Meadows. The locals were able to clinch the title a day early thanks Langley and Ridge Meadows playing to a 2-2 in their opening games and North Shore then beating Langley top open Saturday’s schedule.
With one provincial spot up for grabs, the Islanders still had to play Langley Sunday night and skated to a 5-3 victory — paving the way for Ridge Meadows to earn the second berth.
Earlier, Seafair won the PCAHA Bantam Flight One regular season banner with a sparking 19-1-0 record. Its only loss came back on Dec. 4 to Semiahmoo. Since then, the Islanders have gone 25 games without a defeat that includes a playoff series win over North Vancouver to advance to the final four.
They also have a pair of tournament wins under their belts — the Seafair Icebreaker and the 45th annual Rick Lapointe Memorial Tournament in Victoria.
Coached by Steve Robinson, the Islanders’ roster features Michael Abgrall, Jayden Uy, Jacob Bonkowski, Dominic Passalacqua, Josh Wessels, Davis Sato, Austin Kofler, Carson Bigras, Thomas Tien, Ethan Riesterer, Tate Taylor, Tyler Matsuo, Ethan Yodogawa, Joshua Mori, Nico Fromm-Delorme, Ryan Bal, Ajeet Gundarah and Dylan Tsang. The team also received valuable contributions from AP call-ups Josh Hikida, Bailey Hung and Aidan Texeira.
