Clearwater Ice Hawks hosted the Tier 4 Midget provincial hockey championships March 15-18.
The Hawks placed fifth in the six-team tournament, but that position was no reflection on how well they played, according to coach Tim Walker.
“Although the outcome was hard for us to swallow, the event itself was an amazing experience for your young players,” Walker said.
“Other than our first game, in which we dominated, we were in every game we played and, in my opinion, it could have gone our way just as easily as it went theirs,” he said.
The coach said that the competition was a little tougher than they would have expected for Tier 4.
“The teams in this tournament would have been winning at the higher Tier 3 in our regular season,” he said.
Walker said that the officiating was carried out by higher level referees and linesmen that the team usually gets during its regular season and was, for the most part, excellent.
“I was especially proud of our team, who gave 100 per cent and sometimes even beyond 100 per cent – bordering on reckless,” the Clearwater coach said.
Clearwater faces tough competition
Clearwater started the tournament on Sunday morning, March 15, with a convincing 10-0 win over Semiahmoo of White Rock. Goals came from Jared Walker (2), Austin Rauch (2), Colby Rhodes (2), Matthew Lee, Nate Wadlegger, Justin Sutherland, and Levi Walker.
That evening they faced off against Kelowna and found the tournament wasn’t going to be as easy as the first game might have indicated. Clearwater lost 3-2. Levi Walker and Keaton Noble scored for the Ice Hawks in the third period. The Ice Hawks pulled their goalie for the last few minutes of the game but weren’t able to score the tying goal.
Monday evening the Hawks took on Burns Lake in a hard and physical game. Clearwater goals came from Austin Rauch, Keaton Noble, Colby Rhodes and Justin Sutherland. Final score was 8-4 for Burns Lake.
Twenty-four hours later it was Clearwater versus Chetwynd, the eventual tournament winners. Ice Hawk goals came from Nate Wadlegger, Jared Walker and Julien Dewey, but the end result was a 6-3 win for Chetwynd.
Game number five was against Creston, the eventual second place winners, on Wednesday afternoon. Jared Walker (2), Justin Sutherland, and Matthew Lee scored for the Ice Hawks but the score at the end of the game was 6-4 for Creston.
In the final game Chetwynd defeated Creston 8-0. The Creston goalie was injured at the end of the second period.