Powell River Kings bantam and midget rep hockey teams are heading to BC Hockey provincial championship tournaments.
The bantams beat Tri-Port 6-2 on March 3 to win the Vancouver Island Amateur Hockey Association championship banner for Tier 3. Powell River swept the best-of-three series, including an 8-3 victory in the first game.
The team finished first in Division 2 league play and have posted an impressive record of 29 wins, nine losses and three ties in exhibition play, regular season, tournaments and playoffs.
At the start of the year the team expected to be going to the provincials, according to assistant coach Scott Mastrodonato.
“There was lots of excitement, energy and anticipation,” said Mastrodonato. “There's a sense of satisfaction that we had a goal from the start of the year to get here.”
Mastrodonato said the team played the role of favourite all year. That mindset will switch going into the provincials, where every opponent will be an unknown, he added.
“They're going to have to go out there and play like they're the underdog and they have something to prove,” said Mastrodonato, “whereas throughout the year our mindset was that we were never the underdog.”
Head coach Angelo Porchetta and assistant Lucas Behan round out the coaching staff.
The team heads to Nelson to vie for the provincial championship from Sunday, March 18, to Wednesday, March 21.
The midget Kings celebrated their own Tier 3 championship after beating Port Alberni 3-2 in game one, followed by a 6-1 win on March 3 to clinch the best-of-three series in two straight games.
The team had a tough start to the year and is only now hitting its stride after a rash of injury setbacks. Head coach Andy Welsh said his first full lineup of the season was not available until February.
“We set a goal at the start of the year that we wanted to go to provincials,” said Welsh. “We accomplished that and our goal now is to go and win it.”
Assistant coaches Cory Burnett and Chad Van Diemen join Welsh behind the bench.
Provincial championships for the midgets take place in West Vancouver from Sunday, March 18 to Thursday, March 22.
Powell River’s pee wee rep team was eliminated from further playoff action after falling to Port Alberni in a best-of-three series.
