December 01, 2011
Posted in BC Edition, Minor, Atom
By Graham Perkins /
Six games into the regular season for the Atom A1 team, one thing is very clear: there won’t be any easy wins.
“This is definitely the most competitive atom league I’ve seen,” said head coach Randy Downes.
The club is 5-0-1 and already has a six point cushion over second place Seafair, but with only seven teams in the top tier this season, the divide between first and last place isn’t nearly what it used to be.
The boys opened the season with a 3-3 tie against Vancouver Thunderbirds, avenged it with a 6-1 victory over Richmond A1, and then had back-to-back 2-1 nailbiters over NSWC A1 despite outshooting them by large margins in both games.
“Their tender literally stood on his head and kept them in the game. It’s hard when you play against a team like that because of how hard you’ve got to work to score,” Downes said.
They capped it off with a big 11-0 win over Hollyburn, clearly not phased by playing their third game in three nights.
“I guess the goals were all saved up.”
One aspect of the game that’s worth keeping an eye on as the regular season progresses is sportsmanship points. Teams must have six or fewer penalty minutes to earn the extra point, and so far the only team to have all of their points has been Hollyburn. BWC has lost two out of six already; last year, they only lost four all season.
It’s a big week for the team, which beat Seafair 6-3 on Tuesday and was set to face the A2 team on Friday. The last meeting between the A1 and A2 teams was in tiering and ended in a draw, but the A1 team is starting to find its groove and will be hard to silence this time around.
“Motivation won’t be a factor this time around,” Downes said
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