It was a battle of the Eagles Nov. 5-6 at the Chilton Regional Arena in Port McNeill and the Don Cruickshank Memorial Arena in Port Hardy.
The North Island Bantam Eagles, fresh off a win 7-1 win over the Nanaimo Clippers, faced off against the Peninsula Eagles in a two-game series that featured lots of high scoring action.
The first game was on Saturday at the Chilton Regional Arena, and the Eagles came out fired up to battle Peninsula right from the drop of the puck.Peninsula managed to open the scoring at 10:14, but it was all Eagles after that.
Tynan Klein-Beekman scored at 5:07 and again at 4:43 to put the Eagles in the lead 2-1.
Payton Laming added another goal to make it 3-1 going into the 2nd period. In the 2nd, the Eagles Luke Gage netted a goal at 16:03, and then Connor Van Will, Liem Wadhams, Joey Grant and Ryan Patterson all scored to make it 8-2.
The third period was a little slower. Laming scored his second goal of the game at 12:26, and then Grant got his second with 26 seconds left.
Final score, 10-2 for the North Island Bantam Eagles. Coach Marty Gage was happy with the team’s performance after the game, stating the team played with confidence.
The rematch on Sunday at the Don Cruickshank Memorial Arena went slightly different. The Eagles’ Grant netted the first goal of the game at 13:57, only for Peninsula to score at 12:54 to tie it back up 1-1.
The Eagles poured on the shots after that, with goals from Keenan Jack, Chelsea Noel, and Wadhams to give them a 4-1 lead going into the 2nd period.
The Eagles continued to dominate the play throughout the 2nd period. Laming (x2), and Wadhams both netted goals to make it 7-2 as the 2nd period wound down.
Peninsula made a small comeback in the 3rd, scoring three goals of their own, but it wasn’t enough as Luke Gage added one more goal for the Eagles to make the final score 8-5.
