The Burnaby Winter Club completed what can only be described as a season for the ages with a provincial championship AAA peewee hockey banner last week.
The peewee A1 Bruins added a provincial gold medal to an already bursting war chest that includes a first-place finish at the Chicago Bauer world invitational tournament earlier this season.
Burnaby's Christian Buono scored his first goal of the provincials midway through the third period to complete a 4-3 comeback win over the North Shore Winter Club in the peewee A1 final at the University of British Columbia last Thursday.
The game marked the 10th time this season the two winter club teams had played each other.
Burnaby rallied after spotting North Shore three first-period goals on counters by Alex Pescitelli and Chris Douglas, with an unassisted marker.
Ilijah Colina, who had a team-high 14 points, scored his seventh goal of the tournament to open the contest.
"I've coached for 10 years and I'd sum it up with the word, 'Wow'", said Burnaby head coach Brad Reynolds.
"They battled back in the second period and Nick (goalie Nicholas Lee of Burnaby) only let in four goals in a game once all season, so they were pretty confident they were going to have a chance to win."
The Bruins finished the provincials with a 5-0-1 record.
The win ended an unbeaten season against B.C. teams.
In fact, the eewee Bruinsnly loss of the ear was a 4 defeat to the Minutemen Flames in the semifinal of the Quebec Winter Carnival tournament in February.
The Burnaby team registered a record of 60-1-7, the most wins, least losses and most shutouts of any AAA peewee team in North America.
Lee backstopped the Bruins at the provincials, including shutouts over Victoria Racquet Club, NSWC and Prince George.
Justyn Gurney shared the team's goal-scoring lead with seven markers. Tyler Popowich tied Gurney with eight tournament points.
Other members of the record-setting club included Baxter Anderson, Tommy Annable, Gianni Fairbrother, Sahvan Gill, Isiah Henderson, Brendan Kim, Jordin Kojima, Jackson Munro and Liam Ryan.
The team's only blemish at the provincials was a 3-3 draw with Kamloops on March 19.
"This was an incredible group of young men that came together on the ice as a strong hockey team and off the ice as best friends," said Reynolds. "They were extremely proud to represent the Burnaby Winter Club."
