From Dec. 30 to Jan. 3, the Salmon Arm Bantam Tier 2 Silvertips took part in the Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament.
Teams from across North America including Alaska, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. and the Southern United States took part in the 47th annual winter tournament.
The Hungarian national U16 team also featured in the tournament.
During opening ceremonies, the attending crowd took part in singing O Canada. The sound system failed too after, leaving the crowd to take it upon themselves to sing the American anthem
When no one knew the Hungarian anthem, 15-year-old Hungarian player Laszlo Horvath grabbed the mic and sang the anthem on behalf of his team and country.
The Silvertips played their first game on Wednesday, Dec. 30 against the Vancouver A2 T-Birds.
An excited and energized Silvertips team burst out of the gates to an early two-goal lead courtesy of Ty Sanford and Jaron Bootsma.
Joshua Olson scored the third goal for the team right before the end of the second period, on their one-and-only power play of the game.
Early in the third period, ’Tips captain Cole Nisse notched another one in the opposition’s net, and his team went on to win 4-0.
Goaltender Koltin Dodge earned the shutout.
The following day, Salmon Arm faced Castlegar.
In similar fashion to their opening game, the Silvertips struck early and never looked back after scoring early in the game.
Nisse, followed quickly by Dylan Huber, Ty Sanford, Bootsma and Olson, each contributed a goal before the end of the second frame.
Brayden Haskell and Jacob Tudan also contributed goals this game as the Silvertips easily defeated Castlegar 8-1.
For their third round robin game, Salmon Arm faced Yellowknife bright and early on New Year’s Day.
Forward Taylor Howard was on fire for the ’Tips as he grabbed the first two goals of the game against the Wolfpack.
Not to be outdone, Bootsma continued his goal-a-game run when he netted the Silvertips’ third goal of the game.
Sanford got a goal during the third period as the Silvertips went on to win 4-1 win over Yellowknife.
After the round robin play, the ’Tips placed first overall out of 20 teams in the tournament. In the two-game knockout round, they faced off against the seventh place Williams Lake Timberwolves.
The fire that the Silvertips started the tournament with fizzled out and three injuries did not help their cause.
Short on the bench and playing on the larger Olympic ice surface at MacArthur Island took its toll on the ’Tips.
Bootsma scored the game’s first goal, followed up by Dominic Barbosa before Williams Lake came back to take a 3-2 lead.
Tudan’s goal drew the ’Tips level, but Williams Lake scored two more to win 5-3, dropping the ’Tips to the B-side of the tournament.
On Saturday, the ’Tips played their league rivals, Kelowna. The only goal scored by Salmon Arm was thanks to Dylan Huber, as the Silvertips fell to Kelowna 4-1, ending their time in the tournament.
After the handshake between the Salmon Arm and Kelowna teams, presenters came out on the ice to award Salmon Arm Silvertips captain Cole Nisse with a plaque for the top defensive player of the tournament, a huge honour to receive.
