It was a back and forth affair Sunday in the final of the Williams Lake Midget House Tournament — a battle that took the better part of three periods to decide a clear winner.
Williams Lake Black Atlantic Power, on the strength of an outstanding shutout performance from goaltender Riley Lawryk, edged Williams Lake Red Scotiabank 3-0, scoring two goals late in the third period, to win the championship.
“Our guys played awesome,” said Williams Lake Black Atlantic Power coach Darren Lemky.
“We took a couple little penalties but we played very well. It was a total team effort.”
The game-winner came at 18:09 of the first period when Taylor Hemond found the twine on WL Red netminder Parker Forsberg.
That goal held up as the lone marker until 16:28 of the third period when Hemond added his second goal of the contest.
With eight minutes left in the final frame centreman Ezra Oosting buried the third and final goal for his club en route to the win.
Oosting, Lemky said, was a firecracker on the ice all weekend.
“He never got an MVP out of the whole tournament but we nicknamed him 110 because he gives 110 per cent,” Lemky said.
“He’s just a blast to have on the bench.”
MVPs in the tournament final were Lawyrk for WL Black and Patrick Kenny for WL Red.
“The defence let him [Lawryk] see almost every shot,” Lemky said.
“When a goalie can see the puck, he’s going to stop it. I think our forecheck and the defence letting him see the puck was what got us from one end to the other without losing a game.”
WL Black went undefeated at the tournament beating Valemount 6-5, Quesnel 8-1 and Lac La Hache 8-2 on its way to the championship game.
Meanwhile, WL Red pounded Lac La Hache 8-3, shut out Kamloops 2-0 and downed Valemount 7-3.
In the battle for bronze 100 Mile House Pharmasave shut out Kamloops 4-0.
Jacob Remanente was a monster for 100 Mile House potting two goals and an assist in the win while Micky Turner and Brad Terron rounded out the scoring.
In the C final WL Yellow beat WL Blue, 7-4; in the D final WL Green beat Lac La Hache, 4-3; and in the E final Valemount beat Quesnel, 14-1.