Burnaby Winter Club Hockey: Divisional Reports

January 13, 2012
Posted in BC Edition, Minor

By Graham Perkins /

ATOM

The A2 team started off the New Year on the right foot with a big 5-1 win over Hollyburn A1.

It was the fourth victory of the regular season for the club and moved them to within striking distance of NSWC A1 in the standings. The club’s record of 4-5-3 (following a tight 4-3 loss late last week to Seafair A1) moved them within two points of NSWC A1 for fourth place in the super-competitive seven-team top tier.

The club actually has more wins and fewer losses than North Shore, but it difference has been discipline: in 12 games this season, they’ve only managed to pick up five sportsmanship points, the fewest in the group.

The A3 team, meanwhile, has been humming along near the top of Tier 2 with a 9-3 record. It’s going to be a difficult task to overtake Seafair A1 for top spot, but a recent four-game winning streak that stretches back to Dec. 16 shows the team is headed in the right direction. The stretch includes a 3-2 win over first place Seafair, their only loss of the season to date.

PEEWEE

The BWC A1 team is in an unfamiliar position heading into the second half of the season: second place.

Normally, a record of 9-1-1 would guarantee you top spot in any league. But a strong NSWC team bested them by one game in late December, and the 3-0 defeat at the hands of the undefeated Winterhawks is the only difference between those two teams right now.

The Bruins squeezed out a 5-4 win against Chilliwack last week, but lost a crucial sportsmanship point thanks to a 10-minute gross misconduct penalty that pushed them past the 12 penalty minute threshold required to retain the extra point.

The A2 team seems to be on the upswing after going 4-1-1 over their last six games to make up for a rough 0-7 start to the season. A 2-1 victory over third place Langley this past week helped the team make up some much-needed ground.

“The team wanted to make a statement that being kept in Tier 1 was no mistake,” commented head coach Brad Reynolds. “We have focused a lot on our team’s skating and individual skills on the first half of the year.”

Reynolds said all the skill work has helped create a pace that’s difficult for other teams to match and has opened up scoring opportunities for the boys.

BANTAM

It was a very happy holidays for the Bantam A1 team as they came away with a big tournament victory down in Los Angeles playing against some of the top squads in the U.S.

The squad lost their first game of the round robin to the Colorado Thunderbirds in a shootout but never looked back. Their final two round robin games were a shootout victory over the host L.A. Selects and a 6-1 win over Alaska.

In the elimination games they earned a 6-0 victory over the Colorado Rampage, then got revenge on the Thunderbirds with a 3-0 win in the semi finals. It set up a championship game against the Selects, and things weren’t looking the Bruins way when L.A. jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. But head coach John Batchelor knew as long as his team stuck to the game plan, they’d get a chance to strike later on.

“They’re a good skating team and they came out real hard. We knew we’d have to weather the first five to 10 minutes and we just stayed in our game plan and capitalized on their mistakes,” he said.

The club won the game 4-1 despite not getting awarded any penalties throughout the tournament – “I guess we weren’t in the ref’s favour,” Batchelor chuckled. Their 5 on 5 play proved to be enough of a weapon and the squad is humming nicely heading in to next weekend’s big John Reid Memorial tournament in St. Albert, Alta.

One unfortunate aspect of the game was an injury to star forward Adam Musil, who was kneed in the semi-final and has been off the ice for nearly two weeks. With a tough schedule ahead of them in St. Albert, they’re going to need all the firepower they can get if they want to defeat the best teams in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“I just hope we’re healthy. I know we match up well with any team there, it’s just a case of being healthy and ready to play,” Batchelor said. “If we win, that’s great. But if we don’t, as long as we play well and learn from it, that’s what it’s all about. I like our team – we’ve come a long way.”

Previous Story: BWC Alumni Profile: Austin Madaisky, Kamloops Blazers
Next Story: OneHockey tourney begins