The peewee A Kerry Park Islanders swept their way to gold at the Peninsula Eagles Winter Classic hockey tournament on Jan. 3-6.
The Islanders started things off with a convincing 6-1 victory over New Westminster, then doubled up on Oceanside 6-3 behind a hat trick by Brendyn Van Oene. Jace Bennefield scored three times in Kerry Park’s last game of pool play, a 5-3 win over Port Moody, and Brandon Kendall had the game-winner.
The quarter-final against host Peninsula was Kerry Park’s closest game to that point as the Islanders needed overtime to beat the Eagles 4-3, with Van Oene scoring the decisive marker.
Quinn Bond was the difference in the semifinal, scoring four goals in Kerry Park’s 8-4 win over Burnaby, which set up a rematch against Oceanside in the final.
The Islanders’ second meeting of the tournament with Oceanside was much closer than the first as the teams were tied 3-3 at the end of regulation. No one was able to score in overtime, so the game went to a shootout, where Kerry Park goalie Stefan Kostin stopped both shots that he faced, while Van Oene and Jacob Leamy capitalized on their chances to give the Islanders the gold. Kostin and Leamy were named MVPs of the gold-medal game, and Ewan Petrie got the Digger award.
Other MVP and Digger awards during the tournament went to Kainan Robinson, Vaughn Purinton, Wade Enger, Nicholas Wade, Bennefield, Kendall, Van Oene, Noah Hunt, Bond and Sam Huck.