Make room for another banner in the rafters of the Hope Arena: the Hope Atom C2 squad captured gold in their Gold Division playoffs, with a 3-0-and-1 record.
The one tie came in the decisive final game last Tuesday at home, in a tilt against Chilliwack C5.
“That last game was really back-and-forth, said team manager Jesse James on Monday. “We were down 6-5 near the end of the game and we tied it and held on.
“We knew, going in, that we needed to get at least a tie — and our sportsmanship point — to win the banner. Those sportsmanship points turned out to be very important. You get one extra point if you have six minutes or less in penalties in a game. We got them in all of our playoff games.”
The C2s ended up third in their regular-season schedule, with a 7-and-3 record in the Gold division. James explained that the regular season had two divisions, then the playoffs were done on a three-division round robin format.
“The top three of the Gold group were put with the bottom two of the Blue group, to make a middle division,” said James.
None of the other Hope-based teams won banners this year, though James said the PeeWee C2s were very close, with a 5-2-and-1 tally. Some teams had games this week but had no chance to end up on top, he said.
“I was talking to the PeeWee C2 coach, Rick Simon, and he said they were tied for the top, but would lose on the tie-breaker,” added James. “The Midget C2s were in it, going into last weekend — but they had to win their games and have other teams lose theirs. It didn’t happen.”
A number of Hope Minor Hockey players were skating with rep teams in Chilliwack this year. Dyllan James of Dogwood Valley and Terron Vander Wyk of Agassiz played on the Bantam A3 squad and Monday night, they had a chance to win their playoff banner. Chilliwack beat Cloverdale 6-1 to secure top spot.
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The only big event left at the local rink is the annual Friendship Tournament, March 25-27, for players aged 16 and up. Cost was $60, if registered by March 16 but is now $70.00. Forms are available at the Rec Centres’ reception desk but you can also download a pdf registration form. Search for ‘Hope Recreation’ then use the site’s search box to look for ‘friendship.’