If organizers of the inaugural Delta Wild Winter Midget Prep Classic were hoping to create plenty of parity they certainly delivered.
Delta Hockey Academy’s eight-team tournament concluded on Sunday afternoon with both medal games producing overtime results.
The host Wild trimmed Okanagan Hockey Academy (OHA) White 4-3 to earn bronze, while the Burnaby Winter Club Academy struck gold with its win over OHA Red by the same score.
The eight-team event held, at Planet Ice, featured plenty of heavyweights from Canadian School Sport Hockey League’s Midget Prep Division including first place BWC (23-1-1), second place Delta (21-3-1), third place Yale (18-6-2) and fourth place OHA Red (18-7-1). Shawnigan Lake (15-7-3) and OHA White (3-18-1) rounded out the CSSHL representation.
The tournament also included two teams from the U.S. based North American Prospects Hockey League - Everett Elite Hockey’s 16U team and Arizona Bobcats’ 18U squad.
Everett was stepping up in age class for the weekend. The Silvertips sit atop the 18-team 16U Division with a 12-1-0-0 record. They went winless but still gave eventual champion BWC all it could handle in a 4-3 defeat.
The Bobcats arrived in Delta with a 3-10-0-2 record in the NAPHL’s 18U Division. However, they enjoyed a competitive weekend despite missing out on the playoff round.
Three times the Wild had to battle back in Thursday’s opening game before a late goal produced a 4-3 win over Arizona. The Bobcats also fell to Shawnigan Lake (5-3) and OHA White (4-1) before closing out the tourney with a 6-4 loss to Yale in consolation play.
As for Delta, a 4-1 win over OHA White and 4-3 defeat to Yale was enough to finish on top of its pool group thanks to goal differential. Yale was squeezed out of a playoff berth despite finishing with the same 2-1 record as Delta and OHA White. The difference was being surprised 6-3 by OHA White in its opening game.
Delta’s title bid ended with a 4-2 loss to OHA Red on Saturday night. It was the same result as when the teams met back in September in regular season play.
The Wild return to CSSHL action this weekend with a pair of games against the Pacific Coast Hockey Academy at Planet Ice.
