The Hollyburn Huskies put on a show for the hometown crowd at Hollyburn Country Club last week, winning the 2018 Bantam Tier 2 Championship provincial tournament in thrilling fashion.
Twin brothers Mike and Steve Allen, along with Sean Smith, have been a longtime coaching trio for the AAA Huskies Bantam Tier 2 team. This tournament was the band’s final set.
“It was kind of like their last hurrah – and it went down as a pretty good fairy tale story for them,” said Hollyburn’s hockey co-ordinator Lucas Skriko.
When the Huskies first met Port Moody on March 18 in the opening round of the tournament, it may have been hard to picture the two teams in the finals together. The Panthers were on the prowl.
“They beat us pretty bad,” said Skriko. “I think just going in we knew that Port Moody was going to be one of the best teams. They had a strong year and we played them before.”
For Hollyburn games, the stands were filled with about 200 spectators, friends and family cheering on the hometown team. First game jitters and all the pageantry of hosting may have contributed to the loss against Port Moody, according to Skriko.
Also, heading into the tournament the Huskies were without a couple key players due to injuries. However, the Huskies had to put all that pressure out of their minds before the following afternoon.
“We knew that we pretty much had to win almost all of the next games,” said Skriko.
Hollyburn’s second game got off to another shaky start. Campbell River got on the scoreboard first.
“And at that point you start thinking, ‘OK, this is not good,’” said Skriko. “A second loss is pretty much we are out of the tournament already the second day in.”
Skriko said the team’s leaders stepped up, including captain Luke Roberts and some of the defencemen. The Huskies not only beat Campbell River 7-1, but also found their rhythm.
By the fourth day of the tournament, Hollyburn had clinched a berth in the championship game.
Already home free, the pressure was off for the Prince George matchup – which was held hours before the gold medal game.
“I think that helped them a little bit. You had a game, you rested up a little bit, instead of being home all day just shaking nervously thinking, ‘Oh my God, I have 24 hours until one of the biggest games of my life,’” said Skriko.
The morning of the gold medal game against Port Moody, Hollyburn got a surprise boost of energy. Huskies alumni Morgan Reilly and Sam Reinhart sent the team a few words of encouragement.
“Good luck tonight boys, what a great opportunity to accomplish something special,” said Reilly. Reinhart wrote: “Make sure you guys enjoy the moment and make the most of the final game as a team. You will never be on a team like the one you’re on now. Go get it!”
It must have been good karma for Reinhart, who notched a hat trick for the Buffalo Sabres in a 7-4 win against Nashville Saturday night.
“Way to go Sam!!” tweeted the Huskies.
The final game at Hollyburn drew about 400 fans, a mix of alumni, coaches, parents and friends, whose energy rose to the rafters of the arena.
Hollyburn opened the scoring two minutes in. The shots were even and the Huskies defence held the Panthers back for the first period.
There was some more back and forth in the second – with Port Moody coming on a little stronger. Both teams drew a penalty apiece. Midway into the second period, Port Moody got on the scoreboard.
The game was tied going into the third period. And then Port Moody scored again, at the halfway point.
“We just kept at it,” said Skriko. “We kept on pushing. They pushed back a little bit, played a little bit defensively.”
With a few minutes left in the game and the fans on the edge of their seats, the Huskies pulled their goalie. With 21 seconds left to go, a Port Moody player made a costly move, putting his hands on the puck in the goalie crease.
Hollyburn was awarded a penalty shot – much to the excitement of the hometown crowd. Huskies player Griffin Palfrey did the honours.
Skriko took a moment to review the tape and the momentous occasion he captured on his smartphone.
“He’s a righty. He just came down, kind of deked to go right and then he came back on his backhand and then put it … not five hole, but in between the goalie’s pads and his right pad – and it kind of trickled in,” recalled Skriko.
In that moment the crowd went berserk, he added.
“I was with a bunch of younger kids who will remember this for a while. And the parents were kind of to the left of me and everybody just went crazy. All the kids on the bench were jumping around. Just a great feeling.”
The game went straight into sudden death overtime, with the coaches only having a couple minutes to say a few words.
Three minutes in the magic happened.
“Someone shot the puck on net and the goalie kind of saved it – there was probably a little bit of deflection coming in,” recapped Skriko, who said he was watching from right behind the goal line.
“The puck just sat flat and time kind of just stopped. And you could tell the goalie didn’t know that the puck was behind him, but Max knew … and he kind of just lifted his stick over the goalie and just tucked it in.”
Huskies hero Max Mobius is an affiliate who was brought up for part of the season from the Bantam A2 team.
“He scored the goal and all the kids obviously tackled him on the ice,” said Skriko. “Gloves and everything was in the air. Everybody was going crazy. The parents were jumping around. It was a great moment.”
