After some early morning on-ice conditioning sessions to burn off turkey dinners the Mainstream Biological Consulting Peewee B Tyees returned to play just down the road at the Comox Chiefs tournament January 3-5.
On the first morning of the tournament the Tyees faced the Nanaimo Clippers. Nanaimo got on the scoreboard first but Tyee defenceman Heydon Campbell ripped a slap shot from the blue line to get the Tyees’ first goal. The Tyees used the momentum to keep the puck in Nanaimo’s end and Ethan Mainprize was in perfect position in front of the net to tap in a rebound to tie the game at two. A bit of back and forth offence followed. On a 5-on-3 powerplay for the Tyees, the Tyees capitalized. Improved passing and playmaking gave the Tyees more room and time to create scoring chances and the game ended in an 8-4 win for the Tyees.
Next up that afternoon was the host Comox Chiefs. The Tyees’ Nathan Lagos scored an incredible four goals, with a fifth coming from Kyle Billy. Goaltender Jayce Hudak came up with some great saves for the Tyees but the Comox offence was strong as well. The game was tied at five when the Tyees took a chance on a power play and pulled Hudak to get a 6-on-4 situation but Comox scored with about a minute left in the third period to make it 6-5 for the home team.
The next morning the Tyees faced unknown opponent Sooke “A”. Sooke got on the board first as the puck was deflected off a Tyee’s shin pad. Billy answered back for the Tyees but the tie situation didn’t last long as Sooke rallied with five straight goals.
Billy was brought down on his way to another goal and was awarded a penalty shot late in the third period. Using amazing patience and stick handling he waited for the big Sooke goaltender to go down and raised the puck up and over to get the Tyees’ third goal. Despite a huge effort, the game ended in a 6-3 loss to the higher-tiered Sooke team.
The last round robin game saw the Tyees face Oceanside – another higher-tiered team. A win would result in a second place standing, a loss or tie would put the Tyees in fourth.
The game would have a number of penalty calls, but in the first minutes the Tyees found themselves on numerous power plays. Tyees Nathan Lagos and Robert Gurney each had powerplay goals to open the scoring but soon the Tyees found themselves in the penalty box and Oceanside used the advantage to get on the scoreboard.
After trading goals back and forth, the game ended in a 4-4 tie.
In the Tyees final game, again versus the Nanaimo Clippers, the Tyees came up with a big 6-1 win to end on a high note.
The Peewee B Tyees resume action at home this weekend with games against Saanich at 4 p.m. on Saturday and against Tri-Port at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
