It was a near miss for the host team at South Delta Minor Hockey Association’s 27th annual Tim Jardine U15-18 Showcase, held Nov. 11-14 at the Ladner Leisure Centre and South Delta Recreation Centre.
The U18 A1 Storm captured the bronze medal with a 3-1 over Ridge Meadows last Sunday. South Delta saw its title hopes end with a 4-2 loss to the Port Coquitlam Pirates in a semi-final tilt held hours earlier. The locals had gone undefeated in round-robin play, with a 2-0-1 record, to take first place in their pool group, then rolled to a 6-2 quarter-final win over Chilliwack.
Among the Storm’s preliminary results was a 4-4 tie with eventual champion Okanagan Minor to open the tournament. The hosts also rolled to 9-1 and 10-1 victories over Vernon and Powell River respectively.
Coached by Ken Priestlay with assistants Brent Wheatley and Tony Marra, the Storm’s roster features goalies- Arjun Chahal and Diarmuid Bostock; defencemen- Ben Wichers, Owen Turpie, Mathais McDonnell, Hayden Clisby, Dylan Van Poelgeest and Ryan Carleton; forwards- Declan Speiran, Jake Jones, Max Kidds-Brodie, Jack Callow, Nabeel Moledina, Jacob Bailie-Wolf, Tyler Allan, Maddex Hewitt, Owen Venier and Zachary Milne.
Okanagan defeated PoCo 4-1 in the gold medal game.
In the U15 Division, the Vancouver Thunderbirds skated to top honours with a 3-1 win over the Okanagan Hockey Academy in the championship game. The North Shore Winter Club took bronze with a 5-2 triumph against North Delta.
The hosts U15 A1 Storm bowed out of championship contention with a 6-3 loss to the Thunderbirds in the quarter-finals. South Delta had earlier gone 0-1-2 in round-robin play.
