A dozen teams took part in the weekend’s peewee C tournament. In addition to the two local house league teams, teams came to town from Abbotsford, Langley and Maple Ridge, among other communities.
“They apply for the tournament,” said ƵappMinor Hockey tournament coordinator Dave Knight. “I take all teams on first-come, first-served.”
Coaches of eight more teams wanted to register, but the tournament was already booked, he added.
In the end, for Monday afternoon’s final, Port Moody held off Seattle for a 5-2 win, though it looked like the American side was going to stage a comeback after Port Moody jumped out to a 4-0 lead.
The Ƶappteams were in tough against opponents for their mini round robin games and ended up in the bronze pool when it came time for the playoff round.
In Sunday’s bronze semi-final, Ƶapp1 faced off against the Abbotsford Hawks. Squamish’s Andrew Fielding opened the scoring in the first with a high wrist shot past Abbotsford goalie Chayten Sarn.
Thirty-two seconds into the second period, though, the visitors tied it up, and Abbotsford pulled ahead five minutes in, then added a third goal before the period was over.
Halfway through the third, Fielding scored a second goal to cut the deficit to one. With three minutes left, Abbotsford went up 4-2. Fielding added another goal for the hat trick, but that was as close as Ƶapp1 got.
Ƶapp2 had a tougher time with the Langley Bulldogs. Throughout the game, it was a case of one step ahead and two steps back for the local side. The game was actually deadlocked for most of the first period until Langley’s Adrian May scored with 25 seconds left.
Ƶapptied it up at the 12:59 mark with a shorthanded goal, but the floodgates opened 17 seconds later when Langley pulled ahead for good, scoring another 12 seconds after that.
The local team scored once more, but it was all Langley later, as the Bulldogs won 8-2.
Knight said the tournament re-seeds teams after the opening games into the bronze, silver and gold pools so that all the teams get to keep playing in brackets against others at similar levels. Everyone still has a chance at a trophy late into the event, and at the end, everyone gets to take home a medal.
“Everybody had fun,” he said. “That’s what our tournaments are about. Everybody gets something.”
The long-term result, Knight added, is that teams want to come back to Ƶappfor the tournaments.
“That’s the best compliment a tournament coordinator can get… returning teams.”
On Monday morning, the two Ƶappteams faced off in the opening game of the final day, with Ƶapp2 coming out ahead with an 8-1 victory over their local rivals.
The community will now host a smaller tournament shortly after Christmas and one over the first weekend in January, which is expected to attract nine or 10 teams.
“I’ve got two schedules made, a 10 and a nine,” Knight said.
In February, there will be a big Family Day tournament for atom rep teams from Feb. 5 to 8, with teams coming from Powell River, Port Alberni, Seattle and other communities. The following month, Ƶappwill host bantam teams in tournament play.