Both the Williams Lake bantam and peewee tier 2 rep hockey teams left the recent provincial championships with their heads held high, despite not performing as well as they had hoped.
The Williams Lake Peewee Tier 2 Timberwolves finished its tournament, hosted in Penticton March 18-22, with one win, two losses and a tie.
The Williams Lake Bantam Tier 2 Timberwolves, playing in Trail from March 18-21, lost three round robin games and were eliminated from playoff contention.
The Peewee T-wolves arrived at the tournament a determined bunch; however, they lost a heartbreaker, 8-6, in its opening contest to Mission. Mission erased a 3-0 first-period Williams Lake lead and fought back in the win contest.
Scoring for Williams Lake was Dane DuBois with a hat trick, while William Paynton, Conley Pinette and Tyler Tenning added singles.
In game two the T-wolves skated to a 6-6 tie with Trail-Rossland. Potting goals were Dubois (3), Lane Wycotte and Paynton (2-3-5), with Trey Thomas adding two assists.
Game three saw Williams Lake dump Fort St. John, 8-4. The Thomas (1-3-4), Paynton (2-3-5) and DuBois (5-2-7) line combined for 16 points in the game.
In its last game, already knowing they were eliminated from playoffs, Williams Lake fell 10-3 to the host Penticton. Scoring were Paynton (1-2-3) and DuBois (2-0-2).
Williams Lake Bantam T-wolves coach Steve Carpenter said he thinks his team was capable of beating all the teams they played; however, he said they came out flat.
“It was just one of those weekends where things just weren’t good for us,” Carpenter said. “We just didn’t seem to play the way we can.”
The bantams lost 2-0 to Trail to open the tournament, then fell 5-1 to Cranbrook, before losing 10-3 to Mission.
“I think losing the first one kind of deflated the kids a bit,” he said. “But I think they recognize as a team if we’d played our game and played hard we probably would have beat them.”
This year’s bantam rep team was the first from Williams Lake to qualify for a provincial championship since 2008. Carpenter added the future is bright for his club.
“It’s nice to see that we’re, as a program, starting to compete better with the larger centres,” he said.
“Next year our first-year bantams this year, plus our second-year peewees this year, will hopefully get to experience it [provincials] again.”