Christian J. Stewart
Special to the Record
What a great day of hockey!
Last Sunday the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League (VIJHL) put its best talent on display at their annual All-Star Classic at Pearkes Arena in Saanich and judging from some of the action, it would not be surprising to see a few of these players make their mark down the road in higher levels of hockey, perhaps even the NHL.
The day's festivities began with a morning breakfast banquet for the players and their families. Hosted by KOOL-FM's Robin Farrell, who was also a guest coach for the South Prospects later in the day, the banquet featured guest speaker and former NHLer Geoff Courtnall, who entertained all with his stories about his life in the NHL and in particular, some of the antics of the players during his days with the Vancouver Canucks.
The Prospects then took to the ice for the 4-on-4 "young-guns" game. The North, who were being guest coached by CTV2 sports anchor Mira Laurence and Nanaimo Clipper head coach Mike Van deKamp, quickly took a 3-0 lead 10 minutes into the contest on the strength of goals by Comox's Adam Robertson, Oceanside's Taylor Grabowski and Comox's Keegan Fletcher.
The South, after a tongue-lashing from guest coach Farrell and Victoria Grizzlies assistant coach Vic Gervais, finally responded with two goals, one from Saanich's Shawn McBride, to pull within one, but the North scored again before the period was out to take a 4-2 lead into the break.
In the second half of the two-period game, Comox's Jed Martin bumped the North's lead to 5-2 seven minutes into the frame, but the South responded just two minutes later to make it 5-3. The teams exchanged goals in the last half of the period and the North emerged with a 6-4 win.
One surprise was a fight in the second half of the game between the South's Liam Sproule of Saanich and the North's Dixon Wing of Campbell River. Sproule, who had an assist in the game, appeared to get the better of Wing in the dust-up and following the game was awarded the South's MVP award for his efforts.
The All-Stars then took to the ice prior to their game to compete in a fastest skater competition. When the dust had settled and various elimination rounds were completed, the final came down to a head-to-head competition between Peninsula Panther teammates Trevor Yee and Dane Gibson for the title, with Yee prevailing.
The highlight of the day was the All-Star Classic and given the respective team's lineups, with the South featuring six of the top 10 scorers in the league, one might be forgiven if they thought this would be an easy win for the South.
The North were clearly not buying into this and outplayed the South for much of the first period, and led 2-1 at the break thanks to goals from Campbell River's Alex Benjestorf and Oceanside's Luciano Sommerville. Kerry Park's Cole Thomson responded for the South.
In the second, the North again doubled up on the South as Campbell River's Alex Gruppe and Oceanside's Connor Enright scored to make it 4-1 before the South's Sam Rice (Cougars) cut the lead in half.
In the third period the fans got their money's worth as the South began to find their scoring touch. The South's Steve Axford (Cougars) made it 4-3 just three minutes into the frame, however the North responded when Comox's Jackson Garrett restored the two-goal lead with 14:58 remaining.
The teams exchanged quick goals just two minutes later as Victoria's Sam Rice scored his second for the South to make it 5-4, only to see Oceanside's Travis Briggs respond just 11 seconds later to put the North up 6-4.
The South continued to pressure the North and eventually tied things up with a pair of goals at the mid-point of the period. Victoria's Trevor Chown tallied with 11:12 remaining to make it 6-5 and Saanich's Sam Johnston netted the tying goal just 40 seconds later make it 6-6.
The teams traded exciting chances after that to no avail and the game went to overtime, where again nothing was settled. This sent the game to a shoot-out and in a change from the standard three-man shoot-out format (to maximize the entertainment value for the fans) a 10-shooter format was utilized.
After some exciting moves and saves, South goaltenders Victoria's Evan Roch and Saanich's Tanner McGaw saved the day, allowing only one North shoot-out goal in seven shots, and the South took the shoot-out 4 goals to 1 to emerge with a 7-6 victory in the game.
MVP awards went to Campbell River's Alex Gruppe for the North and to Kerry Park's Cole Thomson for the South.
