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Jets soar to Bantam AAA title at Richmond International

A1 squad caps perfect five game run with 5-3 win over Golden State in Monday's gold medal game

The Richmond A1 Jets are Bantam AAA Division champions of the 39th annual Richmond Bantam Midget International Hockey Tournament.

The hometown Jets capped a perfect five-game run with a 5-3 victory over the Golden State Elite on Monday night at the Richmond Ice Centre. It was a showdown of unbeaten teams as their California opponent entered the final with a 4-0-1 record. 

Veer Sadana led the way offensively with his first hat trick of the season.

“We have had a lot of one goal losses this season and lost in a shootout in Victoria in our last tournament so this was nice and to have a comfortable lead too. Not too much as it was still a close game,” said Jets head coach Mike Ikeda.

“We’re hoping this tournament is a springboard for 2020 to get us going. The final set-up well (with two unbeaten teams) and it was nice to play a team we haven’t seen and don’t know too much about. (As coaches) we had to do things on the go.”

The Jets advanced to the gold medal game hours earlier with a hard-fought 3-2 shootout win over the South Delta Storm.

A late Storm power play goal tied the game at 2-2. A five-minute overtime session followed and South Delta appeared to have scored the game winner but the referee lost sight of the puck and blew his whistle. After a lengthy discussion, the goal was disallowed and the teams headed to a shootout.

That’s where goaltender Sophie Lim-Metz came up large, making three key saves while a fourth Storm shooter fired his attempt over the net. The Jets finally ended the drama on their fourth shot.

The teams had met three days earlier with Richmond rolling to a 6-1 win in round-robin play.

“Playing that same opponent in such a short span of time can be hard. Fortunately we haven’t lost to them yet this season and we didn’t want that to happen today and it end up being our last game,” added Ikeda.

Lim-Metz is part of the all-female tandem in the Jets’ goal crease — a rarity at the Bantam A1 level of boys hockey. Lauren Mackay got the win in the championship game.

The rest of the Jets roster includes: forwards — 6 Jack Campbell, 8 Kaden Nelson, 9 Ryan Tang, 10 Kevin Bhangoo, 11 Teo Lin, 12 Hayden Deemer, 14 Tyler Bradley , 15 Koen Brusse , 17 Ben Medicoff-Sander, 18 Cristiano Sebellin and defencemen — 13 Eshant Bhela, 16 Jackson Danis, 54 Quinn Orr, 58 Cody Matsuo.

Rounding out the coaching staff are assistants AJ Mak and Brendan Metz. Shelley Matsuo is the team manager and Jeff Daniels the safety person.