The bronze medal game of the B.C. Interior Stars Cup AAA invitational pitted the host Stars and Manitoba X-Treme for the second time.
In their first tilt, the Stars clobbered the X-Treme 9-1 the morning of April 10. The X-Treme got redemption with a 7-4 victory to claim the bronze medal.
“It wasn’t our best game,” said Stars coach Shea Sanche. “We had lost (5-3) in semifinal to the Saskatchewan Huskie Prospects and that took a lot out of our boys. Disappointed in the result.”
Sanche said the X-Treme were a good team, they finished 2-2 overall, but the Stars were disappointed to not be playing for gold.
“All the teams were really good,” said Sanche. “They played a better game than we did.”
Sanche was very happy with the tournament overall and praised the work done by organizer Jason Tansem and his crew.
“Teams were all high- calibre, the games were very competitive,” said Sanche, adding that five matchups in the round robin went to overtime. “The parity was strong. That was the ultimate objective. You just never knew who was going to win each game.”
Sanche said the players had a lot of fun in the most competitive tournament they have played in. It was a memorable experience on and off the ice as the teams had a chance to hang out during a barbecue. Sanche said everybody spoke highly of the experience and want to sign up for next year. There is already talk of expanding it to 10 or 12 teams.
“It’s daunting to even think about it,” said Sanche, jokingly. “Jason did an unreal job. He knocked it out of the park.”
“It went fantastic,” said Tansem, saying he received lots of positive feedback from parents and manager as they were thrilled with the venue, hotels and the city.
The tournament also had good crowds, mostly for the host team attracting about 150 people.
“Their last game against the Sask Huskie Prospects, it was jammed, it was great,” said Tansem, adding Penticton was great in supporting the event, especially the Penticton Lakeside Resort, where the teams stayed.
