The Peewee Rep Seawolves celebrated a gold medal finish at its home tournament on Sunday afternoon, thanks to a 5-1 victory over the Smithers Storm.
That capped off a 4-0 weekend for the kids, who also beat the Rupert Bantam House team (7-1), Terrace (11-1) and Smithers (6-2) again.
“They didn’t stop working. They worked hard all the time. They didn’t stop battling and competing, even when we were shorthanded, they remained calm and played good positioning and they never let any pucks in,” said coach Vince Aceto.
The Seawolves played a strong 60 minutes from start to finish to win the cup. It was a result of a well-balanced showing by the peewees.
“We got stronger performances by players that needed to show up a little more and did, so that was good. Goaltending was good too again, another key part,” the coach said.
The gold medal match was the Seawolves’ best game of the tournament, said Aceto. The team was a bit sluggish at times throughout the tournament and didn’t play their best, but they all peaked at the right times.
Aceto is proud of how far his team has come.
“I’m pretty confident in this group and they’ve grown up from the beginning of the year. Their maturity, they’ve gone from lower plains to pretty high right now,” he said.
In the first, the Seawolves were the stronger team, dominating puck possession and not giving the Storm any scoring opportunities. Kaiden Munroe got things started with a shot from in front that got past Smithers goalie Boden Derbyshire.
Josh Leighton and Samantha Wiley also scored in the first period.
The Storm came out stronger in the second frame, creating more chances on net. Keenan Holland finally got one in the back of the net on a shot that just trickled past Elly Lowe, who made some big saves.
But the third period proved the team that deserved to win the cup. The Seawolves showed why they have been so good this season. Despite taking four penalties in the period, Noah Aceto netted two goals to give Rupert a 5-1 lead it would hold onto.
Munroe was given the tournament MVP. He scored four goals and three assists in the tournament. Other Seawolves who lit it up include: Aceto (seven goals, three assists), Leighton (two goals, six assists), Kade Jones (two goals, four assists) and Jon Pirillo (two goals, three assists).
Lowe started two games for the home team and Jacob Gordon was in net for the other two.
The Seawolves now play in Kitimat on Saturday for its final game of 2016. Aceto said the Kitimat team could possibly be the best team in the district, so the kids will be working hard to prepare for that test.