Hockey
East/West Showdown
The overall event is hosted by the BCHL which is in its 50th year of operation and has seen numerous changes over the years.
Each Provincial Junior A League has exceptional young players pass through the program and one such player was Brett Hull, who played for both Penticton and Bellingham.
It’s interesting that on this day in history Brett scored his first career NHL regular season goal in a 4-3 Flames win over the Hartford Whalers.
Prior to the start of this series, there were very few that would have predicted an all Canada final.
Most actually thought the final would see the defending Champions, the US play Sweden, but this wasn’t happening this year.
On a side-note one of the reporters actually predicted a win by Canada. Any you wonder about the Media? Of all the officials that took part it was great to see that BC has two officials working.
One Referee is Trevor Hansen, while one Linesman is Bevan Mills. Coaching staff chose to go with the “hot-hand” and the East chose #31 Adrian Ignagni while Kent Lewis put King’s tender Sean Maguire between the pipes.
While the crowd was still filing in the gates, but teams were trading chances, but none would be on the board. While each team had quality shots, after one period Canada West were leading by an 8-6 margin.
While the first was score-less, the second saw a more wide-open style of play. Canada West came out flying and Nanaimo’s Evan Richardson put them up at 1:14 on an unassisted marker.
Not to be outdone, West Van’s Adam Kerfoot put them up 2-0 at 9:51 after stealing a give-away. Canada East never recorded a shot on goal until the 6:30 mark of the period.
They pressed and did manage to get some quality shots, but never managed to get the first marker of the game until the 16:00 minute mark on a goal by #17 Michael Neville, at least putting them within striking distance.
With the game featuring a “no penalty” contest, Canada East’s #11 Tyson Spink took a minor for Slashing in the attacking zone following a great chance to get a shot on goal.
While it took a while for Canada East to score, the shots after two were tied at 14 each.
The start of the third saw Canada West come out flying and saw Carson Cooper score the third goal at 41 seconds in on a PP.
With no end in sight, Canada West were on a roll and put in marker number four on a goal by #15 Aaron Hadley at 2:53.
Only natural that Canada East call a timeout, so as to settle down the troops in hopes of getting within striking distance, but only time would tell.
While everyone was trying to guess what the attendance was, they announced the 50/50 was $1,622 for the winner with the right ticket. Just not mine!!
Down but not out, Canada East scored the 2nd goal of the game at 14:36 off the stick of #7 Daniel Milne on a turnover in front of the crease allowing him to walk in alone.
Try as they might, Canada West played solid shutting down all on-comers and not allowing any second, third or forth shot on Maguire.
Final shot total saw Canada West outshot Canada East by a margin of 26-18 through three periods.This was an exceptional game and Hockey Canada should be proud of our upcoming talent on display this week at the Langley Event’s Center.
In a class more Canada East following the presentation of the awards shook the hands of the players of Canada West.
Final shots had Canada West outshoot Canada East 26-18.
Game stars were:
Canada East #16 Justin Danforth
Canada West #9 Carson Cooper