A pair of Alberta juggernauts appeared locked for berths in tonight’s A final of the 40th annual Vernon Coca-Cola Pee Wee Invitational Hockey Tournament at Civic Arena.
The St. Albert Sabres, who lead the Edmonton city league, rocked the Vernon Watkin Motors Mustangs 12-2 Friday night to advance to a Saturday semifinal against the Surrey Thunder.
The Sabres topped the Coca-Cola Division at 3-0 with 34 goals, while Surrey placed second in the Sun Valley Sports Division at 2-1 after upending the Campbell River Tyees 11-3 Friday night.
Vernon ended up second in the Coke at 2-1 as they smothered the Juan de Fuca Grizzlies 6-1 Thursday night. The Mustangs faced the Simons Valley Rebels of Calgary in the other Saturday semifinal in the eight-team tourney.
Simons Valley, who lead the Calgary league, outlasted St. Albert 7-5 in the finals of a Medicine Hat Tournament in November. Both Simons Valley and St. Albert are ranked in the top-three in Alberta.
“Our goal here is to win the tournament and we’d love another chance at them (Calgary),” said St. Albert captain Josh Mahura, who fired four goals against the Mustangs.
The Sabres, who have lost just one game in league play back home, used a fast, punishing physical style to overwhelm the much smaller Mustangs.
“I think we moved the puck well and we were getting lots of pucks to the net and just working hard,” said Mahura, 12, a big fan of Edmonton Oilers’ grinder Ryan Jones. “They’re (Vernon) good. We just played one of our best games.”
Sean Richards netted 3+2 and Connor Deighton supplied 3+1 for the Sabres, who got singles from Mattias Neset and Zach Aston.
Vernon got goals from Brett Lambert and Jagger Williamson.
Mustang forward Connor Marritt said the Sabres were an intimidating bunch.
“That’s one of the best teams I’ve seen this season,” said Marritt, who turns 12 in March. “I thought they were hitting more than we did and we were playing scared.”
Marritt said the Mustangs were quickly filing away the loss in the dressing room.
“At first, we were all sad and bummed about the loss, but we’re looking forward to the next game and putting that one behind us.”
Marritt and Williamson each pocketed 2+1 as the Mustangs stuffed Juan de Fuca. Matt Kowalski earned 1+2, while Carson Gray also scored. Tanner Sidaway replied for the Grizzlies.
Simons Valley finished preliminary play Friday night with a 7-4 win over the Spokane Jr. Chiefs. The Rebels iced Surrey 5-2 earlier in the day.
Goal judge Gord Ellinson was honoured with the Rienie Holland Memorial Award for longtime service to the tourney. The A final goes at 6 p.m.
