A restful Christmas season benefited Campbell River’s bantam A Tyees which chalked up a perfect record at the Aldergrove hockey tournament last weekend.
Maybe it was the fact the No. 1 Autobody Tyees hadn’t played a game in a couple of weeks, or a carry-over of the holiday spirit, but the Tyees seemed to have a bit more spring in their steps and power in their strides as they took to the ice.
The first game on Jan. 4, was against a truly foreign opponent…Seattle Thunderbirds. The Tyees showed the team from south of the border what forechecking pressure is all about as they kept the T-Birds hemmed into their own end for extended stretches of time.
The result of the sustained pressure was numerous scoring opportunities that the Tyees took advantage of as they skated to a 5-0 victory. Kyle Franceschini earned the shut-out and the Player of the Game (POG) was Dawson Frank.
Aldergrove Bruins were the next opponent on Friday and proved to be the best competition for the Tyees at the tourney. The game was fast-paced and physical, and the Tyees mostly kept their composure as they worked hard in front of Dominik Bellefleur.
The final score was 6-4 for Campbell River and POG was Will McLean.
In what can only be described as a heart-warming moment, one spectator made a comment after the game regarding how well the Tyees were playing, especially Maddy Devlin and Olivia Knowles.
They wanted to bring their younger daughters to watch the Tyees next game so they could see that young women can compete with the young men.
Unfortunately, this didn’t happen as Devlin and Knowles had to leave the Tyees after the game to participate in female U-16 tryouts (both girls made the team, along with Lisa Lloyd Watch next week’s Mirror).
On Jan. 5, against Surrey Hurricanes. the Tyees kept the pressure throughout.
The hard work paid off and the offence came through as the Tyees skated to an 8-3 victory. Tyler Dickson was POG but the victory came with a high cost as defenceman Doug Campbell broke a bone in his right hand. He will be on the injured reserve list for the next four to six weeks.
The result of the round-robin meant the Tyees played Surrey again in last Sunday’s semi-final. The Tyees started slowly, but were able to control the play when it mattered most and came out with a 6-3 victory to setup a rematch against Aldergrove in the final game. POG was Dustin Kew.
Franceschini got his second start of the day in the final game and helped back-stop the Tyees as they won the championship game 4-2. POG was Brendan Hoff.
Tyees’ captain Josh Coblenz led the tournament scoring with eight goals and 13 assists followed by assistant captain Sage Lim with seven goals and six assists
“All players contributed to the success of team this past weekend,” said head coach Vince Devlin.
The five-game sweep comes at the right time for the Tyees as it faces a tough schedule leading up to the playoffs.
Tonight, at 6:15 p.m., The No. 1 Autobody Bantam A Tyees host Nanaimo at Strathcona Gardens. The game is on rink #2.
before heading to south to play Juan de Fuca on Suunday.