The peewee A Cowichan Valley Capitals had to beat the Vancouver Thunderbirds twice to win the Coquitlam Peewee A Gold Classic Tournament on Oct. 23-25.
When the teams met in the round robin, Cowichan had little trouble, winning 7-3. It was a different story in the final where the Capitals had to battle back from a deficit to win 3-2.
“Vancouver definitely was a lot better in the final,” assistant coach Gary Blace said. “It was like playing a different team. They had all their lines going.”
Vancouver held a 2-1 lead going into the third period, but that didn’t scare Cowichan.
“Our kids didn’t get too excited or down on themselves, and they got two goals back to secure the win,” Blace said.
In addition to beating Vancouver in the round robin, the Capitals edged Coquitlam 3-2 and downed Aldergrove 7-2. They beat Coquitlam again in the semifinal 3-1. Parker Klippenstein, Dawson Elzinga, Braden Blace and Brendan Wilson were named game MVPs.
“It’s definitely a big deal,” Gary Blace said of the tournament win. “The team’s just starting to come together, so it was a good result for so early in the season.”
The Capitals were also missing a couple of valuable second-year players.
“Our overall effort level made up for the bodies we were missing,” Blace said.
The team started Tier 1 league play a week after the tournament.
“Our goal is to reach provincials come March,” Blace said. “This was a good team-building win, a good place to keep building on.”