From start to finish nothing came easy for the Seafair Islanders yet they still found a way to repeat as champions at the 18th annual Tim Jardine Showcase Tournament.
The Islanders captured the eight team Bantam AAA event with a hard-fought and entertaining 5-4 victory over the host South Delta Storm on Sunday at the Ladner Leisure Centre.
The same two teams had open the tournament four days earlier with the Richmond squad needing a late power play goal to prevail 3-2 in round-robin play. It proved to be an identical script in the final as another man advantage goal in the final four minutes was enough to hold off a determined Storm team for good. Seafair had never trailed in the final, opening up an early 2-0 lead, only to see South Delta battle back to draw even on three different occasions.
As the only participating team slated to play in Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association's top tier for regular season play, the Islanders were considered the pre-tourney favourites. However, a challenging month of tiering games had taken its toll with four regulars unavailable for the weekend and another injury leaving the team with just eight forwards for the playoff round.
Seafair also had its hands full in its final two preliminary games against Surrey (4-4) and Campbell River (8-5), before holding off Vancouver 3-1 in the quarterfinals. Even an 8-3 semi-final victory over Campbell River saw the Vancouver Island squad enjoy a 3-0 lead before the Islanders got going.
The championship game featured two high-profile coaches going head-to-head. Seafair's Russ Weber guided Team B.C. to gold at last February's Canada Winter Games, a feat that helped him earn B.C. Amateur Hockey's coach-of-the-year award. The Storm are led behind the bench by former South Delta star Shane Kuss who has made coaching stops with the Delta Ice Hawks and the B.C. Hockey League's Surrey Eagles.
"Right from the get go it was a real challenge for us," said Weber. "I'm extremely proud to go into this with just nine forwards and the tenacity the boys showed, dealing with back-to-back games.
"To be honest we tried to rest on one goal leads rather than go full throttle with our forcecheck, like we usually do, just to conserve energy."
Seafair needed players to step up and its best did just that. Western Hockey League Bantam Draft prospect Glenn Gawdin earned tournament MVP honours with 12 goals in six games, including back-to-back hat tricks.
Others picking up the slack included Alex McLeod, one of six 1998 born players on the team, who had three goals in the comeback semi-final win over Campbell River. Second-year Brett Gelz also enjoyed a strong tournament.
The Islanders opened regular season play this week and will be headed to another tournament in Victoria early next month.
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