The peewee B Cowichan Valley Thunder were firing on all cylinders last weekend as they stormed to the gold medal in the Penticton Barnburner Tournament.
“I feel the keys to our wins were solid goaltenders, solid defence and potent offence,” Cowichan coach Chris Claxton said. “Our penalty kill was very solid. But the main thing I saw was our boys never let up. Every shift was 100 per cent.”
After rolling through round-robin play with three wins, the Thunder faced the also undefeated Delta Islanders in the battle for top spot. Cowichan led 3-0 going into the third period, but Delta came alive down the stretch and knotted the score at 4-4.
The Thunder were penalized with two minutes and 15 seconds left to play, but after a quick timeout, they headed back on the floor and got the ball to first-year peewee Fin Klippenstein, who scored to make it 5-4.
“I just put my head down and shot as hard as I could,” Klippenstein told his coach after the goal.
Then it was just a matter of making that lead hold up.
“We held off Delta for the remaining minute or so of play and second-year Seth O’Brien got the ball in the last 30 seconds and held it behind the net for the 10 seconds due to the penalized player being in the box, then dumped the ball down the floor to kill the clock,” Claxton summarized.
The final against Delta marked the first time in the tournament that the Thunder faced a real challenge. They had no trouble winning all three round-robin contests, beating the Mission Sasquatch 17-2, the Surrey Rebels 13-1 and the North Okanagan Legends 11-3. Cowichan’s netminding tandem of Reed Gallaugher and rookie Sky Rossiter was phenomenal all tournament. Rossiter even managed to hold fast against a Surrey team that tried to get into his head before the opening faceoff.
“Our goaltending was solid with Reed playing two of the three round-robin games and the final,” Claxton said. “Sky played only his second game ever and only let in one goal against a feisty Surrey team who called his equipment before the game even started.”
Everyone got in on the action offensively, with Carter Beal exploding for his first career hat trick against Mission, and Tayden Ross scoring what Claxton called “the prettiest goal of the tournament,” with a one-handed dodge down low and a shot over the back of the Surrey goalie.
The Thunder open the playoffs this weekend, hoping to be one of three Island teams to book a spot to the provincial tournament in Fort St. John.
