The boys were tasting victory and pizza Wednesday night, as North Shore Winter Club’s U13 team celebrated its victory at the provincial championships.
To secure the title, the squad clinched a 6-5 win in overtime against Burnaby Winter Club at the Surrey Sport & Leisure Centre Arena.
It was a back-and-forth rivalry that lasted all season. Burnaby beat North Shore in a tense shootout at the Pat Quinn Classic tourney in December. Burnaby was up by three goals in the first game of the round robin at the BC Provincial Championships, but North Shore was able to tie it up with a minute to go in the third period, explained coach Jon Woodyard.
“Everybody was talking about how exciting a potential game between us in the final would be,” he said. “It was a lot of amazing plays, lots of turnarounds and comebacks…. All the boys on both sides did a really good job of delivering a super exciting final.”
While there were no official stars noted at the tournament, one obvious pick would be OT goal-scorer Kenzo Gibson. Woodyard also noted North Shore team captain Louis-Oscar Holowaychuk, a “very stellar performance” from goalie Quinn Coupland, and Conor Nicolson, who had two goals in the final game and many more in the tournament.
The whole team was thrilled with the result, Woodyard said. “You don’t often get to end the season on a win.”
To celebrate, the boys ordered 15 pizzas to a warehouse space near the rink.
