Team BC was smiling the whole way home knowing they pulled off a gold medal victory at the Nationals in Calgary. To have BC’s name engraved on the cup on their debut appearance is an accomplishment the whole team is proud of.
As expected, the competition was fierce. All provinces fielded strong teams and the line between victory and defeat was very thin as many games over the weekend, not just BC’s, were decided by only one goal.
BC walked away with the top spot on day one with a win against Alberta and Quebec and tie with Ontario. This put them up against Ontario in the semi finals. Ontario showed strong strategic, positional play, especially on defense, limiting BC’s goal scoring ability. As in their first weekend meeting, the game ended in tie, sending it into a sudden death playoff. Thankfully, Marco Bertocchi scored on a hard shot from the point to send BC to the finals.
In the other semi finals, Quebec showed their experience controlling the ball, setting up each other in the offensive zone for some spectacular moments, defeating the younger, energetic Team Alberta.
Quebec was the match up BC was hoping for as they knew they would have to bring nothing less than their A game to stand on the same court with these guys. Both teams came out wanting to win, playing hard. At the end of the 2nd period, BC found themselves in penalty trouble. With two players in the box, they were facing a 5 on 3 penalty kill. It was here BC turned the tables on them with the hard fore checking of Blair Zimmerman causing a loose ball that lead to a short handed goal on a breakaway. If that didn’t sting, you could certainly see the pain in Quebec’s eyes as Blair repeated the task a simple 30 seconds later putting BC up 3-1 with one period to go.
Victory is a taste Quebec is use to and was certainly part of their dinner plan. Quebec fought back the hardest we had seen them play all weekend, finding new speed and energy. Jonathan Burnham, took advantage of a careless turn over in BC’s own end and narrowed the gap to one goal. Quebec could smell blood and quickly followed with the game tying goal from their dangerous power forward, Stephane Laporte. It was a nail bitter for both teams until there was less than one minute left in the game when Team BC’s Aaron Hoffman from Vernon scored the game winner on a rebound. A great game to win…a hard battle to lose.
It was the fact that Team BC got solid efforts and contributions from the entire team that lead them to the gold medal. They never let up and gave their all to the final whistle. Special recognition has to be made to Markus Moisio for giving everything he had, showing team commitment and self-disciplined play. Chris Mohn for his stellar goaltending shocking many players by stopping what they thought were definite goals. Also to Christian Kortman for his beautiful goal to goal rushes ending in the release of his cannon like shot.
Special thanks to the host province, Alberta and the volunteers that made the weekend happen, especially to the players who took on the difficult, thankless job of refereeing. The ref’s all did an excellent job of making consistent calls. We don’t always show it, but we have more respect for them than they know! Our hats go off to them!
Today we enjoy! Tomorrow we figure out how the #@*% we are going to win this thing again next year!
Thank you to the new National Champs for a great weekend!
Goalie
Christopher Mohn
Devan Petterson
Defense
Marco Bertocchi
Christian Kortman
Michael Lindgren
Karl Marits
Forward
Greg Beaudin
Aaron Hoffman
Simon Lam
Freddie Melen
Markus Moisio
Cecilia Rongedal
Greg Rozitis
Andi Vogel
Blair Zimmerman