The Burnaby Winter Club are the B.C. Hockey Tier 1 peewee champions again.
The peewee Bruins overcame a slow start and avenged an earlier loss to Cranbrook to take the provincial championship banner away from the Kootenay club following a comeback 6-4 victory in the final game at the University of British Columbia last Thursday.
A shorthanded goal by Arshdeep Bains early in the third period sparked an unanswered four-goal rally that turned around a 4-2 deficit.
“Arshdeep’s shorthanded goal on a breakaway, that really changed the game,” said BWC head coach Brad Reynolds.
Christian Fitzgerald tied the game at fours off a faceoff.
Tournament high scorer Sasha Mutala then potted the 5-4 go-ahead goal, before assisting on Bains’ second of the game into an empty net. Mutala also led the provincials with 14 total goals.
In the first period, Elan Bar-Lev-Wise and Justin Sourdif both scored to give Burnaby a 2-1 lead.
Burnaby opened the seven-team tournament with a 3-3 tie against eventual 1-3-2 Kelowna.
The Bruins got themselves into a playoff rhythm on Day 2 of the championships, knocking off 3-3-0 Cowichan Valley 6-2 and later in the day 4-2-0 Seafair 8-2.
“We definitely were (playing our best hockey),” said Reynolds. “I think honestly, I know they were talking in the dressing room, this was their last opportunity. We had been upset in Chicago and Quebec, and these kids were determined they weren’t going out early.”
The six-goal win over Seafair was the largest point spread between the top-two-finishing teams during the Pacific Coast regular season. BWC’s only loss in league play was to Seafair.
In its first meeting with Cranbrook on March 18, Burnaby fell behind 3-1 on two late first-period goals and then trailed 5-2 after two periods, before falling 6-4 to the Eagles in round-robin play.
“(Cranbrook) had a very good team. We hadn’t heard or seen them. They were a pretty hardworking group of kids. I think they just ran out of gas,” Reynolds added.
The winter club finished the preliminary round with relatively easy opposition, winning 13-2 over Prince George and later a 10-0 win over the host Vancouver Thunderbirds.
Burnaby Winter Club finished up the provincial tournament with a 5-1-1 record to win its second consecutive B.C. Hockey championship banner.
