A pair of North Shore hockey teams shot their way to dramatic provincial title victories during B.C. Hockey Championships played recently around the province.
The North Shore Winter Club's Bantam A1 team took the title in the bantam Tier 1 boys' division, earning themselves a berth in the 2013 Western Canadian Bantam AAA Championship scheduled for this weekend in Kindersley, Sask.
The Winterhawks opened the provincial tournament with a pair of convincing wins - 5-1 over Cowichan Valley and 9-0 over Prince George - before losing a tight 4-3 game against Burnaby Winter Club. The Hawks rebounded with a 6-1 win over Kamloops to earn a rematch with Burnaby in the championship game. In the final Burnaby jumped into the lead but the Hawks battled back to even the score twice, finally getting the game winner on the power play in the last minute of the third period to take the provincial crown in thrilling fashion.
The other North Shore team that took home golden provincial hardware was the North Shore Avalanche who claimed first place in the pee wee A girls' division for the third year in a row.
The Avalanche stalled early in the tournament, losing 3-0 to the Richmond Ravens in their opener, before picking up speed with big wins over Prince George, Vancouver and Surrey. The North Shore squad then held off the Abbotsford Ice 4-2 in their final round robin game to earn a berth in the final and a rematch against Richmond.
With the championship on the line the Avalanche avenged their earlier loss to the Ravens, scoring a tough 3-2 victory. In the final the Avalanche took a 2-0 lead into the third period and looked ready to cruise to victory but the Ravens scored twice late, including the tying goal in the final minute, to send the game into overtime. With sudden death rules in effect the Avalanche claimed the glory with an unassisted goal from Cassidy Wait off of an end-to-end rush.
