It was the scenario every hockey player imagines: overtime with the gold medal on the line.
Sadly, it was not the ending they envisioned as the Langley A1 Eagles lost 4-3 in overtime to the Chilliwack A1 Bruins on Sunday night in the championship game of the provincial juvenile A1 hockey championships.
The tournament was held at Chilliwack’s Prospera Centre with the host Chilliwack squad skating away with the gold medal.
“It’s life, it’s sports,” said Langley coach Larry Spady.
“Obviously the goal was the gold medal (but) the boys are alright.”
The game was a rematch of the opening contest from the provincial championships, which Chilliwack won 6-3.
Spady said his team was “a little too ramped up” in that one as they tend to play with a lot of emotion.
The Eagles broke into the win column in game two, defeating Juan de Fuca 8-3. But in their second game on day two, they let a lead slip away, settling for a 6-6 tie with Coquitlam.
Needing to win their final two games to qualify for the gold-medal match, Langley came through.
Tied 1-1 against North Delta — the league’s regular season champions — the Eagles pumped home four third-period goals to win 5-1.
They then knocked off Port Coquitlam 7-3 to finish the round-robin with a record of 3-1-1 to secure second spot and a rematch with the Bruins (4-1-0).
And the gold-medal game got off to a fantastic start for the Eagles as they scored twice in the opening minutes.
Langley led 3-2 after one period and that score stood until late in the third period when the Bruins knotted the score at three.
“They got a late goal and then went into overtime, where anything can happen,” Spady said.
Spady has coached the majority of the players — who are 18, 19 and 20-years-old — at some point throughout their minor hockey careers.
And this marked the third time one of his teams came up one game short of the gold medal, including also losing the provincial midget A1 final a few years ago.
“I have nine 1994-born players who between them have more than 120 years of playing minor hockey in Langley,” Spady said.
“This was the culmination of their minor hockey careers.”
Spady said he was most proud of how tight a group his players were.
The team finished with an overall record of 29-7-4.
It was also the squad’s second straight appearance at the provincial juvenile championships. They finished 2-3 at last year’s event.
