Burnaby Minor is celebrating its 50th bantam AAA Christmas hockey tournament later this month.
Headlining this year's group of 16 teams, are the Kamloops Blazers and Okanagan Hockey Academy from the Interior and the Langley Eagles, currently sitting in fourth place in the Pacific Coast Tier 1 standings.
The popular post-Christmas competition begins on Dec. 27 at the Bill Copeland Sports Complex and Burnaby Lake arenas. The tournament culminates with medal games on Monday, Dec. 31, including the gold-medal final, which is scheduled for noon.
Other Tier 1 teams taking part are Coquitlam, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver Thunderbirds and the host Burnaby Minor Bulldogs.
The out-of-town flavour will be spiced up by teams from Arizona, Prince George, Nanaimo, Cowichan Valley and the Alaska Jr. Aces, who made it to the bronze final in 2008.
The tournament will also play host to the inaugural Great Northwest Showcase - a four-team university exhibition competition that will see the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University play American club teams from Arizona State and Oklahoma universities.
The showcase matchups will take place at the Bill Copeland centre on the Friday and Saturday nights, beginning at 4 p.m. both days.
SFU will play the late game on both days, beginning with Oklahoma on Dec. 28 at 7: 15 p.m. The Clan club faces Arizona State, No. 1 in the American Collegiate league, the following night, also at 7: 15 p.m.
"It's going to be a pretty good show with SFU. It's a good start for hopefully something that will grow," said Burnaby bantam tournament chair Larry Hayes.
Burnaby Minor opens its Smith Division pool schedule against the Surrey Thunder in the Copeland centre on Dec. 27 at 10: 45 a.m.
Later in the day, the Bulldogs meet the Nanaimo Clippers in the late game scheduled for 8: 45 p.m.
On the Friday, Burnaby takes on Alaska at 3: 30 p.m. at Burnaby Lake in the final pool game in the Smith Division.
Other divisional poolings include: Coquitlam and Richmond, Tier 2 leader South Delta Storm and Prince George Cougars in the Boyd Division; Kamloops, Langley,
Okanagan academy and Vancouver in the Wong Division; and Arizona Firebirds, Cowichan Valley Capitals, and Tier 2 Ridge Meadows Rustlers and Seafair Islanders in the Marino Division.
Crossover games begin on Saturday, Dec. 29 and run all day. The matchups include Boyd and Smith placing teams and Marino and Wong pool finishers going head-to-head in the championship round.
Quarter-final games will be held Sunday morning, beginning at 8 and 10: 30 a.m., with semifinal matchups beginning later in the day at 6 p.m.
The bronze-medal final will kick off the final day of competition on
Dec. 31, beginning at 9 a.m. The championship final will follow.
The closing ceremonies and awards will take place at approximately 2: 30 p.m.
