They were challenged, but the Burnaby Winter Club Bruins were never pressed.
To see how the Bruins controlled every period of last week’s B.C. peewee A2 hockey championships in Trail was impressive.
They completing the sweep with a 5-2 victory over West Kelowna on Wednesday to capture the provincial crown after running 5-0 through the tournament.
“We set a goal the day we arrived in Trail to not lose a period of hockey,” noted coach Brad Reynolds. “As cliché as it sounds to play just 20 minutes at a time, that is what this team did. They didn't drop a single period and I think that was the most impressive performance looking back at provincials.”
In the final, captain Noah Gibbons put Burnaby in front five minutes into the game, and counted two goals early in the second period, to make it 3-0. Gibbons’ third goal came off a breakaway. While West Kelowna countered with a goal a few minutes later, the Bruins salted it away in the third on tallies from Dryden Kuramoto and Ryden Evers.
It was the closest test they faced all week, having outscored the competition 41-3.
“The final game was a terrific game from start to finish. West Kelowna was a very well-coached team and matched our team’s speed for most of the game. It was definitely the best match up of the tournament. … They pushed us to be our best the entire game,” said Reynolds.
Setting the tone were the second-year peewee players who displayed calm and consistency on both sides of the puck. Netminder Jaiden Sharma surrendered just three goals over five games, after launching the tourney with three straight shutouts. Captains Amar Sidhu and Gibbons dominated at the other end, with Sidhu counting four goals in a 13-0 win over Kitimat. Gibbons ended up leading all shooters with 13 goals, including a pair of hat tricks.
What they can take away from this, Reynolds said, were a tonne of great memories and friendships.
“This group of kids showed great team unity all season long. The friendships they developed amongst each other carried over onto the ice in practice and games with the boys always putting in their best efforts. From a coaches perspective if you have great chemistry on and off the ice you have the opportunity to achieve big things.”
The Burnaby Winter Club peewee A2 team includes: Jordan Abulail, Kai Adano, David Adaszynski, Luke Ashton, Milan Aujla, Maxwell Chakrabarti, Tyler Chan, Aleksey Chichkin, Ryden Evers, Praab Gill, Noah Gibbons, Steven Konechny, Dryden Kuramoto, Thomas Llamzon, Jordan Luk, Jeffrey Pacholko, Alex Sandhu, Jaiden Sharma, Sevek Sian, Aram Sidhu, Justin Street and Hong Yi Wang.
