A pair of West Vancouver high school hockey teams showed off their shootout prowess en route to winning provincial titles at the B.C. championships held May 3 at Coquitlam's Planet Ice.
Rockridge secondary claimed gold at the Tier 2 level while their neighbours from West Vancouver secondary won the Tier 3 title - there are three tiers of play with Tier 1 being the highest level.
In Tier 2 action the Ravens scored their second straight provincial title, beating W.J. Mouat 3-2 in a shootout to lock up the gold. Rockridge ended up with the win but they had to battle hard just to take the game to a shootout. Trailing 20 heading into the third period, Rockridge got a goal from Isaiah English to pull within one and then James Murray got the equalizer with the goalie pulled and 55 seconds left on the clock.
Tournament rules stated that games tied after regulation went straight to a five-shot shootout, although that number apparently was not passed on to Rockridge goalie Sam Gray. Up 1-0 after two and a half rounds, Gray went into full celebration mode after making his third save, believing that it was an NHL-like three-shot shootout.
"It was actually quite funny," said Rockridge head coach Kenneth Kim. "He did his celebration, threw off all his stuff. He had to put it back on. It was pretty classic."
Two rounds later Rockridge got their clinching goal from David Begert and then it was time for all the Ravens to join in the celebration.
His premature disrobing aside, Gray actually played an excellent game between the pipes, said Kim.
"Usually he doesn't play goal - he refereed the whole year," said Kim. "He's like a house goalie who hasn't played goalie this year. He stood on his head for us."
The Ravens were made up of a mixture of house and rep players with two Major Midget League players, Begert and Nick Lyons, providing the top-end talent. The strength of the team was in its strong defensive crew that included Lyons, Matt Cameron, captain Nickolas Serbic and Grade 9 player Carter Stephenson who was just picked in the ninth round of the WHL bantam draft.
"It builds from the backside," said Kim. "It was just a good, solid crew on the backside. They propelled us this year."
The B.C. high school hockey league, now in its fourth year, has a unique setup that allows players of varying skill to form a school team in the spring following the finish of most other hockey seasons. House players get a chance to blend with kids who may be headed to the WHL and beyond.
"It's a nice mix of these kids," said Kim. "A lot of times they play on high level, highly competitive teams - they don't really get to play with their friends."
At the Tier 3 level West Vancouver got their shootout scare in the semifinals as they beat Whistler secondary in a high flying 7-6 thriller.
"It was one of those ones where as a coach you were like, 'Oh God, this is a nightmare,'" said West Van bench boss Dan Stoddart. "The kids were just run-and-gun, last-goal-wins kind of mentality. Once that kind of gets away on you you're kind of like, 'OK, I hope we get the last goal.'"
The high scoring continued in the shootout as West Van potted four of their five attempts while Whistler notched three. In a change of form, the game actually ended on a save. West Van's Jeff Chi shut the door in the fifth round to send the Highlanders to the final against Port Coquitlam's Archbishop Carney.
West Van tightened up their play significantly in the final, taking a 3-0 lead on goals from Quinn Thompson and Sam Crookbain followed by a beautiful solo effort by Paul Levine. Carney made it 3-1 but Bjorn Knutsen rounded out the scoring with an insurance goal to make the final 4-1 for West Vancouver.
Stoddart said the scoreline didn't match the action on the ice because Chi came up big in net for the Highlanders.
"We deserved to win but it didn't have a 4-1 feel to it," he said. "Jeff Chi really did it for us, had a really good game. He made some saves that he might not make all the time. The more he kept standing on his head, the more the guys wanted to get it done."
Hockey is a welcome addition to the high school sports world, said Stoddart.
"Traditionally hockey isn't in high schools so they don't get to share that high school experience of playing with their peers with the school logo on the jersey," he said.
"I've always though that in high school the guys that play hockey don't get the recognition in a lot of ways because they do it all behind the scenes. So it's nice for these guys to be able to put on the jersey and play with their friends. As the season was going on they really were getting into it. I think they're quite proud of themselves."
The win gave West Van their first provincial hockey title.
"The boys are quite pleased to be able to put a pennant up - our first hockey banner that we can put on the wall in the school."
