‘120 Terrace Review — Wednesday, April6, 1988 |

: A A A’ bri . gs

North Shore Winter
Club takes title

North Shore Winter Club players hold up the Gromie Trophy, symblematic
of the B.C midget triple ‘AAA’ Minor Hockey championship which they had
just won by beating Prince George In the final at the Terrace Arena.

_ The North Shore Winter Club put together a perfect.
five-win record to take home the 1988 B.c. Minor
Hockey triple ‘AAA’ midget championships at Terrace
last week.

They did it with a three-win, no-loss record in the
round-robin section, then a victory over Kamloops in
the semi-final and a 7-4 win over Prince George in the ti-
tle game.

Power-play goals made the difference in the finale,
with North Shore counting five in their triumph while
the George gang had none. .

North Shore started with a goal by Mark Kaufman
midway through the first period. Prince George notched
the game at 1-1 when Glen Bjorklund tallied with four
minutes left.

Then it was Jason Jennings opening the game up for
four straight goals as he scored with less than two
minutes to go in the first.

North Shore added three unanswered tallies in the se-
cond and this seemed to put away a victory. Prince
George added one near the end and entered the third on
a 5-2 deficit.

North Shore ran the score up 7-2 in the third and more
or less coasted to the win, despite a couple of Prince
George goals late in the game.

Each team picked up nine minor penalties in this
fight-less battle for all the marbles, and a trip to the Air
Canada Cup national midget championships at Thunder
Bay, Ontario, starting April 19. .

Scoring statistics had Dean Russell’s two goals leading
the winners. Other North Shore markers came from
Brad Kyllo, Andrew Wilson and Rob Tadey. The other

Prince George goals went to Jamie Hearn, Jason Van-
buskirk and Phil Cadman.

Players and officials heard three guest speakers at the opening banquet
for the 8.C. midget triple ‘AAA' Minor Hockey championships at Terrace
the last week of March. Standing at the microphone is B.C.A.H.A. vice-
president Al Mathews. The trophy at far right Is the Cromie Trophy, which
has been presented to the winner for the past 50 years. .

The four-team ‘A’ side took thelr places on the Ice for opening ceremonies March 27 at the B.C. midget champion: : :

ships in Terrace.

Game by game: how the |
championship was won

The opening game of the
eight-team midget triple ‘AAA’
championship series on Sunday,
March 27, featured the always-
strong North Shore Winter Club
against Dawson Creek’s Aldar
Transport, North Shore was ex-
pected to win, and they did —
7-2.

However, it was Dawson
Creek scoring the first and last
goals. North Shore got all theirs
in-between, so they didn’t really

care about the Dawson Creek’

goals by Clint Switzer and
Koyne Loyselle.

After Switzer scored within
the first minute, North Shore
came back and rapped in a pair
of power-play markers while an

opponent sat out a-five-minute

major. They led by period scores
of 3-1 and 6-1.

As for minor penalties, -

Dawson Creek picked up eight
of the 14 called overall.
North Shore was paced by

~ Jason Jennings and Mark Kauf-

man with two-goal efforts.
Singles went to Ken Campbell,
Kevin Alexander and Derek Lee.

The win put North Shore in

the early driver’s seat for a place |

in Tuesday's semi-final for ‘A’
section, For Dawson Creek, they
had to win their next two games
or face a playoff for one of the
fifth to eighth positions.

The second contest enabled
local fans to see the hometown
Totem Ford midgets in action.
They went against North Kam-
loops Lions — the biggest team
in the series.

For two periods, Terrace held
its own against the Okanagan
mainline reps. Kamloops grab-
bed a 2-1 lead in the first, but
Terrace came back and it was
3-3. going into the final 20
minutes.

The last frame saw Kamloops
run off four straight goals to
come out with a 7-3 victory.

The penalty count was the

there were no majors called.
Eight of the 14 penalties went to
Terrace.

Kamloops had three two-goal
scorers -— Chris Abraham,
Davis Payne and Anil Baines.
David Bond had a single.

Newly-recruited bantam —

Jason Krug, plus Russ Mac-
Farland and Derek Phillips,
handled the Terrace scoring.

same as the first game, except

This put Terrace in the situa-
tion where they’d have to win
both remaining ‘B’ section
games against Victoria and
Prince George for any chance at
the title.

As for Kamloops, they emerg-
ed as a top contender.

Game three was a rather tame
game involving two relatively
small-teams with alot of speed.
The 7-3 victory by Surrey over
Nelson moved the lower, main-
land boys into the opening
choice as a contender.

Surrey grabbed a 4-0 lead in
the first period, and boosted this
to 7-1 after two 20-minute ses-
sions.

They got two-goal efforts
from Garnet Ryall, Scott Mc-
Geachy and Bill MacGillivray,
plus a singleton from Ryan
Seidler. Mike Laughton, Brian
Boates and Steve Pol handled
the Nelson scoring.

For the third straight game,
only 14 minor penalties were
called — eight against Nelson.

Game four was the first real
wipeout as Prince George roared
to an 11-2 win over Victoria.

The north-easters ran up a 9-0
lead before Victoria could dent
the twine. The George gang —
the speediest team of the bunch
—— went ahead 2-0 in the first

_period. They added four more in

the second for a 6-0 lead. Then
they tallied three times before
Victoria’s Reid Bremner scored
two in a row.

Both squads racked up 14
minor penalties.

The Prince George trio of
Brad Smith, Eric O’Brien and
Gary Vallentgoed led the scoring
with two-goal efforts. Other
scoring contributors were Troy
Johnson, Mike Meehan, Kevin
Malgunas, Jamie Hearn and
Jason Zilkie.

The final game of opening day.
gave North Shore the opportuni-
ty to become the only double-
winner of the series.

‘They did the job by counting a
10-4 victory over Nelson, For
Nelson it was their second loss.

The game was never in doubt
as the favored North Vancouver
teens ran up'a 5-2 first-period
lead. They added two more in
the second while holding Nelson
scoreless. |

The game was a little chippy

with 32 minor penalties handed .

out. Nelson took 18 minors. and
the games’ only major.

North Shore’s Jason Jennings
became the playoff’s first hat-..
trick scorer. He got two-goal
help from Scott Morrison and
Ken Campbell, plus singles from
Dean Russell, Glynn Fisher and
Rob Todey.

Brian Boates had a pair for
Nelson. Rick Lindstein and
Jason Ward also scored.

Day two of the series started
with Kamloops notching their
second victory in a contest that
featured as much conversation
as hockey on the ice.

Victoria’s Don McNab picked
up a match penalty right at the
start for delivering a butt-end on
an opponent. Another Victoria
player hit the dressing room
later with a misconduct. -

The referee only served up 21 |
minors, with 11 going to
Kamloops. But at times it look-

‘ed like a war on the ice, and was_.

so bad at the end that both
teams refused to shake hands.
Kamloops grabbed a 3-0 lead
in the first and increased to 6-1
in the second. The final score
was 8-4.
The only two-goal scorer was
Todd Esselmont of Kamloops.

Teammates putting their names ~

on the: scoresheet were Mike
Shanks, Chris Abraham, Mark
Fabbro, Anil Baines, David’
Bond and Rob Beil. cs
The scoring for Victoria went
to Dale Walsh, Doug Popady- —
nee, Dann Durrence and Lorne
Hadley.

Surrey counted their second
win in a row in game five by
thrashing Dawson Creek 11-1.

_ This game saw Surrey’s Dale »
Stewart collide with a Dawson
player and end up with a neck
injury that resulted in a trip to
the hospital. He was kept over-
night for observation.

For Dawson Creek it was their
second loss. Twenty-two minor
penalties were called — 13 to
Surrey with a couple of majors
to Dawson.

The first period made the fans
expect a barn-burner as Surrey
led by 2-1. Five unanswered
second-period markers dispelled
this hope.

It was a hat-trick for Surrey’s
Brian MeNie, also three goals
for Craig Johnson. Willy

“-gontinued on page 13