Burnaby Winter Club started the minor hockey tournament season off with big wins.
The bantam AAA Bruins scored a 4-1 victory over the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Chilliwack, while the peewee A1 team won its own Thanksgiving touranament at the Burnaby Winter Club with a 4-0 win over Langley on Monday.
James Malm scored two goals for the bantams, while first-year Ilijah Colina opened the scoring and Tyler Perziuso got the game-winner for the winter club.
Mackenzie Wright and defenceman Nick Watson also had strong games. Bryce Shiebel recorded the win in goal for the bantam Bruins.
But the road to the final was far from easy, said Burnaby bantam head coach John Batchelor.
The Bruins survived a tough draw and three early morning starts to win their first Chilliwack banner in years.
Burnaby tied Langley 2-2 and Kamloops 4-4 in round-robin play, and were forced to come back from a pair of two-goal deficits against the North Shore Winter Club to advance to the gold-medal final.
In the tournament final, Burnaby gave up just one goal to Okanagan on back-to-back five-on-three penalty kills.
“We used this adversity in Chilliwack to our advantage. It’s always our goal to play the maximum amount of games,” said Batchelor.
The win boosted the winter club’s record to date to 14-0-2.
In Burnaby, the peewee A’s blanked Langley behind the shutout goalkeeping by Georgi Wilson.
Christian Fitzgerald potted a pair of goals, while Sean Donaldson and Elan Bar-Lev-Wise had single counters.
“Every single forward scored a goal, which is always great to start out a tournament,” said peewee head coach Brad Reynolds.
The win kept Burnaby’s overall record intact at 9-0-1.
Last year, four teams from the winter club tournament made it through to the AAA provincials.
This season, Reynolds expects an equal number from the tourney could make it again in 2014, including a “super competitive” Kelowna club that held a two-goal lead on the Bruins before eventually losing 5-3.
Massimo Rizzo sparked the comeback in that round-robin game with a highlight goal midway through the middle period.
