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Wolves, Flyers claim medals at tourney

The Williams Lake Grey Wolves struck silver and the Williams Lake Orange Flyers nabbed bronze on the weekend.
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Williams Lake Grey Wolves assistant captain Tyrell Dan powers around Kamloops defenceman Riley Polacik Sunday during the final of the Williams Lake Minor Hockey Association’s Midget House Tournament. Kamloops went on to edge Williams Lake

The Williams Lake Grey Wolves struck silver and the Williams Lake Orange Flyers nabbed bronze on the weekend at the Williams Lake Minor Hockey Association’s Midget House Tournament.

Sunday’s playoff matchups, following round robin games Friday and Saturday, pitted the Flyers against Clearwater in the bronze-medal match and the Grey Wolves versus Kamloops for the gold.

First, the Flyers hit the ice to take on a Clearwater team they’d tied 1-1 earlier in the tournament.

Flyers goaltender Tanner Nickel allowed just one goal, which came early in the first period, while captain Tessa Hare and Eric Nickel each found the twine to lift their squad to a 2-1 win. Eric’s game winner came at the 2:05 mark of the third period.

Next the Grey Wolves, who’d gone unbeaten in the round robin, were set to take on the tournament’s other undefeated team in Kamloops.

The Wolves found themselves in penalty trouble early in the first, managing to kill off a two-man advantage, but saw Kamloops’ Josh Campbell put the river city squad up 1-0 shortly after.

Less than a minute into the second Kamloops’ Riley Polacik made it 2-0.

Williams Lake answered back with 2:02 remaining in the frame when Tyrel Phillips capitalized on the power play to put the Grey Wolves within one.

From there, both goaltenders — Williams Lake’s Bailey Schick and Kamloops’ Jake Birkeland — played phenomenally, shutting the door for the remainder of the contest.

Williams Lake, with one minute remaining, pulled its goalie while on the power play to try to notch the equalizer, but Kamloops held on for the 2-1 win and the gold.

Grey Wolves captain Calvin Pattison said he thought either team could have just as easily picked up the win.

“They played well,” Pattison said. “We wanted it but I think they wanted it just as bad. It comes down to that. But we can’t be disappointed.”

Grey Wolves coach Ted Vint said it was a great tournament, despite the end result, for his team.

“The whole team came together,” Vint said. “We had been struggling a little bit not long ago but we really came together as a team and everybody put in a full effort and the results showed on the scoreboard.”

Vint said the play of Schick in goal was part of the reason his team saw success in the tournament.

“Bailey really made the big saves when we needed them,” he said. “She kept us in it and gave the whole team hope to keep plugging away.”

Other tournament results saw the Williams Lake Yellow Steelers enact some revenge on the Clearwater Warriors to take fourth place, while the Burns Lake Bruins took sixth. Quesnel AAA Photography beat Williams Lake Teal J.A. to finish seventh.



Greg Sabatino

About the Author: Greg Sabatino

Greg Sabatino graduated from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 2008.
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