Four 100 Mile House hockey players made it to the medal rounds in a recent spring hockey tournament in Prince George.
Goalie Riley McLean and forwards Ethan Sanders and Cole Allan played with the Flypuck Black team in a division for players born in 2002 and 2003.
They competed against the Prince George Pirates and the Houston Flyers, which were full 2002, so Flypuck Black did quite well considering the age differences.
McLean was the only goal tender on the team, so he played all five games, which were the most consecutive games he’s played in minor hockey career to date.
Team Black lost 10-2 in game 1 against the Prince George Pirates, with Sanders getting his squad’s first goal.
Game 2 ended in a 9-3 victory over the Prince George Red Thundercats.
They suffered a 3-0 shutout loss in game 3 against the Houston Flyers, but a Team Black player was injured and taken off the ice by an ambulance crew. They were trailing 1-0 when the injury occurred, and appeared to be unsettled by what happened to their teammate.
Knowing they needed a tie or a win to advance to the semifinals, Team Black popped in the tying goal late in the third period and hung on for 3-3 tie against the Quesnel Bulldogs in game 4.
This set up the rematch against the Pirates, but they came out on the short end of an 8-4 score, and ended up placing fourth out of seven teams.
Ryan Allan was the fourth 100 Mile player to compete in Prince George. He played in the 2001 division for the Flypuck White, which finished first out of four squads.
Game 1 saw Team White nip the Highway 16 Flyers 2-1. Allan celebrated his 11th birthday by scoring the winning goal.
Games 2 and 3 saw them lose to Flypuck Black and the Northwest Wings by scores of 3-2 and 5-2 respectively. That saw them finish last in the round robin and had them playing against the first-place team in the semifinals.
They locked horns with the Northwest Wings in the semifinals and the two squads had to play two overtime periods and a shootout before Team White won 4-3 and advanced to the championship game.
It was Flypuck White against Flypuck Black in the finals and this time around Allan’s team took the 4-3 overtime victory. Allan notched a goal in the winning cause, and travelled home with a gold medal and a championship hat.
