The Campbell River Booster Juice Bantam A Tyees got back to work after enjoying a great holiday season.
After spending some time away from the rink, the players who were in town resumed skating and had a memorable practice that included many Storm players and their head coach, Lee Stone.
On Jan. 4, they travelled south for a game against Nanaimo A Clippers. The carry-over from the Storm scrimmage was apparent to all as the Tyees competed very hard at both ends of the rink against their Tier 1 opponents. Unfortunately, they lost this exhibition game 5-2 but the score really didn’t reflect the overall play.
The Tyees hosted Comox Valley Chiefs (Tier 1) in an exhibition game on Saturday, Jan 11. Carson Borgfjord got the nod to start in goal for the Tyees.
Affiliate Drew Price was in the line-up as Captain Doug Campbell joined the Midget Tyees for a tournament in Kamloops. The Tyees started with lots of pressure but no shots on goal. The Chiefs jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead but the Tyees scored on their first shot on goal to make it 2-1. Teams kept flying up and down the ice, trading chances and scoring goals although this one had a bit of a strange ending. The Tyees led 7-6 then scored into the empty net to make it 8-6.
After play resumed, Owen Boyd scored a short-handed goal to complete his hat-trick making the final 9-6 for the Tyees.
They were right back at it on Sunday, hosting the Oceanside Generals in their last Division 2 regular season game with Borgfjord again starting in net for the Tyees.
This one wasn’t a high scoring affair but the Tyees did very well to keep their legs moving and denying the Generals easy paths to the net .
They outshot the Generals 38 to 24 but many shots were from long range. The Tyees did beat Oceanside by a score of 3-2 to finish the regular season with a record of six wins, three losses and three ties.
Scoring this past weekend was led by Owen Boyd with three goals, two assists, Will McLean 1G, 3A; Lukas Lund 3G; Tyler Dickson, Liam Rivett and Jacob Hartley each had 1G, 2A; Drew Price and Nic Ordano 3A; Damien Rennie 2G; Brady Kratzmann 2A; Olivia Knowles, Matt Leard, Bryce Turko and Jaxon Ward 1A.
Seth Parker had a great game against Oceanside at both ends of the ice but the referees didn’t put his number on the scoresheet this time although a few of his shot from the point did result in goal-mouth scrambles and prime scoring opportunities for the Booster Juice Bantam A Tyees.
Head coach Scott Kratzmann is pleased with the teams’ results and progress to date.
“It’s important for us to give back to the community like we did before Christmas. We really appreciate Lee Stone and the Storm players as they give back to minor hockey the way they do. That inspires and motivates our players much more and far better than any speech I can give them.”