The Campbell River Midget A Tyees opened the tiering round of their 2015/16 season with a game against Juan de Fuca (JDF) tier 1 in Victoria on Saturday.
Dominik Bellefleur started in goal for the Tyees and kept JDF off the scoreboard with great positioning and control of rebounds, especially when JDF went on the power-play.
On the attack, Tyler Dickson squeezed along the boards on right wing, kept control of the puck then moved it to Sage Lim who fed a beauty saucer pass from the corner to Jake Hartley at the open-side of the net. Hartley buried it to put the Tyees ahead 1-0.
While on the power-play, Dickson moved to the puck on the face-off and passed it back to Doug Campbell on the point. Campbell put a howitzer on net that made it 2-0. Later with a two man advantage, fans saw Seth Parker put a wicked shot on net with a screen in front, putting the Tyees up 3-0 with the scoresheet indicating it was Lim’s goal with assists to Campbell and Dickson.
Keeping their foot firmly on the accelerator, Hayden Cross put a clearing pass down the ice that Will McLean chased down. He took it wide and cut in towards the net before putting a low shot pad high for the far post. The JDF goalie made the save but couldn’t control the rebound.
JDF scored an even strength goal on a scramble from out of the low corner that went against the flow early in the second and narrowed the gap to 4-2 on an odd-man rush that was executed to perfection with great passing to the open man for the tap-in goal.
Luke Lund buried one late in the second to make it 5-2.
The third period moved from the sublime to the absurd for some fans. After Nic Ordano deflected a shot to make it 6-2 for the Tyees, it seemed that the testosterone levels were too much for the officials to control. Both teams were in and out of the penalty box but there seemed to be a few more Tyees sent to the sin bin than JDF players.
The game ended with a final score of 6-2 to for the visiting squad from Campbell River.
The Tyees back were back on the road again, albeit it a shorter trip to Courtenay to play Comox Valley (CV) tier 1 on Sunday.
Carson Borgfjord was between the pipes for this one and kept Comox off the scoresheet through the first period.
Unfortunately for the Tyees, former Tyee Kyle Franscechetti was in net for Comox and he also kept the scoreboard clean.
Borgfjord made a great toe save at the start of the second but couldn’t stop the power-play shot that went off his mask and into the back of the net soon after.
Comox extended their lead to two at the end of the second period then added to it at the start of the third with a breakaway goal. There was 12:30 left in the third when Campbell ripped a point shot past Franscechetti, which was soon followed by Dickson ripping one top shelf to get the game within one.
Lim buried a shot under the bar to tie the game at three with 3:45 left on the clock. But then Comox took advantage of a scramble play.
As Tyees pressured the puck, Comox made a pass from behind the net to the open man in the slot.
The one-timer was in and out before Borgfjord even had a chance to get set for the shot for the game winner.
The Tyees host Peninsula tier 2 at Rod Brind’Amour arena on Oct. 1 at 1:45 p.m. and then travel down the road to play Nanaimo tier 1 on Oct. 4.
