January 13, 2012
Posted in BC Edition, Minor
By Graham Perkins /
ATOM
The A1 team is undefeated in 2012. How long that lasts is anybody’s guess, but wins over Seafair and Hollyburn to open the New Year might be a good sign that the early season struggles are finally behind them.
The boys are 4-6-2 with eight games left to play in the hyper competitive seven-team Tier 1, and although catching first place BWC at this point seems out of reach, they have a very real chance of finishing in the top three if they continue their recent play. The win over second Seafair was only the third time they’d been beaten all season and snapped a four game winning streak.
The A3 team, meanwhile, spent part of the holiday break playing in the Port Moody Christmas tournament. The team wasn’t sure what to expect since it was a Tier 2 tournament and they play in Tier 3, but they finished the round robin portion a respectable 1-2 before losing in the consolation game to Chilliwack 5-1.
The team’s lone victory was not surprisingly the highlight of their tournament. It came against Cloverdale A3 in the form of an 8-1 shellacking where they outshot their opponent 8-1.
Team scoring leader Kaleb Murray led the way with a hat trick, and star of the game was defenseman-turned-forward (just for this game) Jacob Pipke, who had four points.
In the consolation loss against Chilliwack they won the shots battle 21-12 but weren’t able to solve the keeper.
“It was a great effort by our guys, but we just ran into a hot goalie,” commented head coach Chris Frederick. “It was new to our guys to outshoot an opponent and lose. That was the learning experience. They had high quality chances and made the best of them, and their goalie kept all rebounds under control.”
They finished the tournament in seventh place out of 12 teams.
When they returned to regular season action, they had a tough 5-1 loss against Seafair A3 but followed it up with a 2-1 win over Vancouver Thunderbirds A3. The victory put them two points back of West Vancouver A1 for fourth place in the 10-team league.
Their next big game is this weekend against Hollyburn A2.
PEEWEE
The North Shore’s Peewee A1 team suffered its first loss of the year over the holidays at the Super Series tournament in Kamloops, falling 4-0 to Kelowna. The team remains ranked first in the province, ahead of Kelowna, BWC and Langley and in league play, the team is 10-0-1 with an impressive 77-8 goal advantage.
Head coach Billy Coupland says the loss to Kelowna provided a positive lesson to the boys, “We’ve got to match the other guys compete level every game. “
The team started the New Year with a 5-4 regular season win over third place Langley, a team Coupland feels is likely their toughest opponent in the division.
“They’re extremely well coached and have a lot of depth. We’ve been fortunate to come out on top of them every match up so far this year..”
Although the team is headed to Quebec in early February, the focus is on the last half of the league games which will will wrap up before the team heads to Quebec.
“Langley, Coquitlam, and BWC are all very good teams. We’ll have to stay on the top of our game to be successful in the playoffs.”
The Peewee A2 have had been bumped up to Flight 2 for the last half of the season after compiling an 8-1-1 record over the the first half in Flight 3.
The team is 1-1 in the higher division so far, beating fourth-place Hollyburn 4-2 in their first game, before dropping their second outing to Burnaby Minor 4-2 Tuesday.
Head coach Rob Dalter says the difference in playing up a tier is the price you pay for mistakes. “They end up in the net, whereas in a lower tier we were able to recover.”
Dalter says the team is looking forward to their game against Richmond next Tuesday, and to playing Semiahmoo, who they have played yet. “The Richmond game will show us where we stand.”
Richmond A2s are in first place in the flight at 9-1-2.
The A3 team is 2-0 since the break, and current sits in third place in Flight 4.
“We’ve played well our last two games, beating New West 7-2 and Chilliwack 5-2, so we’re going in the direction again,” says head coach Don McIntosh.
There are three new teams in the division, Po Co A1s and Ridge Meadows A2 moving down from Flight 3 and Vancouver TBirds A3 moving up.
“It will make for a great run to the end of the season. We played PoCo to a draw real early in the year, and are looking forward to the game against them. If we continue to play we’ll be in good shape for the playoffs.”
The A4s are on a three game winning streak, and sitting in 4th place with a 7-3-2 record, nearly identical to second place Squamish A1s at 7-2-2. The team was riddled with injuries early on in the season and is in a position to finish strong over the next few weeks.
BANTAM
If the Bantam A1 team could have their way, they might forego the regular season and just have a series of tournaments instead.
The squad is an impressive 9-2-1 in league play, but a more impressive stat is that they’ve reached the finals of all three tournaments they’ve entered this year.
It continued over the holiday break, with a spirited performance in the 49th Burnaby Christmas Tournament, where they were seeded in the toughest division and made it through to the finals before losing 6-3 to Cloverdale.
“We were a bit up and down over the tournament. It started off with a good win versus Seafair, then we tied Cloverdale and had a rough game against Semiahmoo. Those are three good teams,” said assistant coach Mitch Pinsky, who was filling in for head coach Jim Dinwoodie while he was in Windsor coaching Team Pacific in the U17 Championship.
The most impressive game from a Winterhawks perspective was in the semi-finals against Semiahmoo. They’d beaten up on NSWC 5-1 a few days earlier in the round robin and were leading 1-0 late in the third period when the Winterhawks tied it up and Cal Babych scored the winning goal for a 2-1 victory.
They ran into a hot Cloverdale team in the finals and by the end of it Pinsky could tell his troops were out of gas.
“It was the end of a long stretch for us. In a 15 day period we played 12 games. We hit a wall in that Cloverdale game, but I give them full credit: they’re a worthy champion.”
When the individual accolades were passed out following the tournament, NSWC ended up with more recipients than any other team. Bo Didur was named Most Outstanding Goaltender, Mitchell Stapley was named Most Outstanding Defenseman, and Jansen Harkins was named to the first all-star team. For his work behind the bench, coach Pinsky was named to the second all-star team.
The Outstanding Goalie nod to Didur truly proves the depth the NSWC has at the back end. In the Medicine Hat tournament in November, Taz Burman was named the top goalie. To have both keepers given such high honours in back-to-back tournaments bodes well for the Winterhawks going forward.
And the string of finals appearances is something the club would love to keep going as they get set to embark on their toughest challenge to date: The John Reid Memorial Tournament in St. Albert, Alberta next weekend.
Medicine Hat was a big stepping stone for the team and they may have surprised some teams there, but the competition level at St. Albert is going to be even steeper. Their first three games are against the Sherwood Park Flyers, Calgary Bisons and Pursuit of Excellence – no walk in the park.
“We’re looking forward to it. Each tournament has been a good experience for us. Chilliwack was a good start and Medicine Hat was a real eye opener. In Burnaby, we found a way to gut it out and get to the final,” Pinsky said.
“The boys have passed every test, and this is going to be another step. We’re just hoping we’re healthy going in, because when we have 9 forwards and 6 D, we’re at our best.”
One of the defining characteristics of the team is their relentless work ethic and ability to grind down teams with their pace.
That was what got them to the finals in
Medicine Hat – an aggressive puck pursuit that forced teams into making bad decisions and giving up turnovers. It’s an aggressive edge that they’ve lost a bit lately – 12 games in 15 days tends to do that to a group of 13 and 14 year olds. But if they can recharge the batteries a little bit and head east with a full tank, there’s enough talent on the roster to make a solid push. St. Albert is always one of the more heavily scouted tournaments, since it’s late in the year and gives scouts an opportunity to fine-tune their draft list. It’s impossible to tell how much that thought is in the minds of a group of kids looking to further their hockey careers in junior, but if there was any time to make a fourth straight finals appearance, it would be a heck of a place to do it. Is a potential Round 2 of the Medicine Hat finals against BWC too far-fetched?
“We would love a rematch,” Pinsky grinned. “If we could get to the finals of St. Albert, that would be a huge accomplishment.”
The Bantam A2s meanwhile have shown signs of improvement, dropping their last two outings by just a single goal, after a couple of rough outings previously. The challenge for the team will be to put up a bit more offence, and hold onto the leads they’ve had.
The return of starting goalie Riley Welyk from a broken wrist is eagerly anticipated.
MIDGET
The A1 team didn’t get off to the start they wanted this month. The team was defeated by Surrey A1 4-2, Burnaby A1 6-3 and Abbotsford A1 5-3. It dropped them down to 2-9-2 on the season and their five sportsmanship points are the fewest in Tier 1.
Strangely enough, the A2 team has the exact same record in Tier 3 since going winless in their last six games. They had a tight 4-3 loss against Richmond A2 earlier this month, then tied Port Coquitlam A2 2-2 and lost to South Delta A2 4-3 last weekend.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: BODY CHECKING:
The Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association (PCAHA), of which the Winter Club is a member, has asked associations to consider significant changes to body checking rules. These recommendations have come from the work of a committee created to study the extent to which bodychecking should continue to be permitted in games played within the PCAHA.
The NSWC Minor Hockey Committee has decided that it will seek the input of parents before it represent the club before the PCAHA.
Members are requested toe read the PCAHA report on body checking on the NSWC site and complete an online survey.
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