The Burnaby Winter Club is hoping to go where no B.C. team has gone before.
The AAA peewee Bruins, hot off a near-perfect Tier 1 regular season in the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association, wants to add a first-ever Quebec Winter Carnival banner to the rafters of the winter club.
"It's the only tournament still to be won," said BWC head coach Brad Reynolds.
The 1997born Bruins made it to the championship final of the Tournoi International de Hockey Peewee de Québec.
A North Shore Winter Club team also made last year before settling for a second-place medal.
Last week, Burnaby finished first in Flight 1 league play following consecutive shutouts over Abbotsford and Ridge Meadows.
The winter club topped the 10-team standings with a record of 19-0-1. The team's only blemish was a 1-1 draw against the Vancouver Thunderbirds back in January.
The back-to-back goose eggs were the ninth and 10th for Burnaby in league play, which also included five shutouts against the top-five team in the league.
That included a 1-0 victory in November and a 2-0 win to start the new year against its winter club rival from the North Shore.
The NSWC peewees placed second overall in league play at 15-3-2.
Overall this season, the Burnaby Winter Club has amassed an overall record of approximately 50 wins and four draws with no defeats in league and tournament play.
Avoiding defeat is an ongoing challenge for the gifted, mostly second-year skaters, but one they take seriously, said Reynolds.
"They come to the rink every single day charged up. They are 16 kids who really love hockey," said Reynolds, who doesn't try to overdo it in training.
The team has only four practices a week, and with a week to go before Quebéc City the boys will see the ice just three times before finally heading east.
Earlier this season, the peewee Bruins won the elite Bauer World Invitational tournament in Chicago, sporting a 60-1 record and win over the Toronto Marlies in the championship final.
But placing first at the 54th edition of the Quebéc tournament is taking hockey to a different level, said Reynolds.
Burnaby prides itself on defence and has allowed just three goals in one league game all season and only four multi-goal matches all season long.
With Nicholas Lee of Burnaby in goal, the team has a rallying point on which to focus its strength.
"Lee is a special goalie," said Reynolds. "He's our every kid's best friend and he's the hardest working kid, even on dry land."
But this week's training sessions will be focused on "speed, speed, speed and decision making," Reynolds added. "I always tell the boys they're going to make mistakes, but they have to deal with them just like in life."
On Feb. 17, the Bruins open their Quebéc City tournament quest against Chomutov of the Czech Republic in the Colisée.
But this year, there is no sneaking in under the radar.
With a peewee hockey record unparalleled in North America, Burnaby comes in with an enormous target on its back.
"I'm sure everyone has caught wind of (our record). It's something we're proud of having but everyone knows we haven't lost. We're not sneaking up as an underdog, that's for sure," said Reynolds.
