The Campbell River Booster Juice Bantam A Tyees travelled south of the border to Portland, Oregon for an AA tournament Jan. 16-20.
For many, this was their first opportunity to play an American hockey team. Unfortunately, Canada’s national winter sport isn’t widely played in Portland.
One American dad said they only have three sheets of ice for recreational hockey in the area so that meant there were far more Canadian teams than American in the tournament.
The Tyees’ first opponent was Coquitlam. It took the Tyees a couple of periods and quite a few trips to the sin bin before they started to adjust to the way the game is called under U.S. amateur hockey rules.
Unfortunately, it was too little, too late as Campbell River lost 4-1. The Tyees’ game MVP was Damian Rennie for his strong two-way play.
Next up was Semiahmoo. The game started with great action at both ends of the ice.
Semiahmoo took a 1-0 lead, but the Tyees tied it with a powerplay goal as Matt Leard deflected a point shot into the top shelf of the net.
Semiahmoo took the lead again at even strength and extended it to 3-1 with a powerplay marker.
The Tyees fought back, scoring with the man advantage and then tied it 3-3. That’s the way the game ended, with Lukas Lund earning the MVP nod.
Campbell River got into the win column with a convincing 7-2 victory Aldergrove. This game wasn’t close as the Tyees played hard and fast in an effort to make the medal round. Game MVP was Matthew Leard.
The tie-breaker didn’t go in favour of the Tyees so they faced off again against Semiahmoo for 5th/6th place.
In their first meeting, the Tyees fired more than 50 shots at the Semiahoo netminder and this time they peppered him with more than 60.
The pressure took its toll as Campbell River led 4-1 and 5-2, before they started playing too loose and let Semiahoo back into the game with two more goals. However, the Tyees held in for a 5-4 victory.
There was no game MVP for their final game of the tournament.
Both Tyee goalies played well. Dominik Bellefleur finished with a record of 1-1 while Carson Borgfjord had a win and a tie.
Scoring was led by Tyler Dickson with four goals and on assist; Will McLean and Jaxon Ward each had two gaals and three assists; Doug Campbell two goals and two assists; Owen Boyd, one goal and three assists; and Matt Leard, Nic Ordano and Braydon Kratzmann each had three goals.
Olivia Knowles, Seth Parker and Bryce Turko all played solidly in the defensive zone with many opponents picking themselves up off the ice after being laid out.
The coaches, players and parents want to thank team manager Darrell Knowles for organizing a fantastic road trip. The Booster Juice Bantam A Tyees will be playing an exhibition game in Courtenay this weekend before beginning Tier 2 playoff games in February.