It was a tough weekend for the Creston Valley Minor Hockey peewee players to swallow. It was the most important tournament of the year, the tournament that gives the victors the right to carry home the division banner. Unfortunately, that team was not the Creston peewee Bruins.
Their first game of the weekend was against the team ranked first in the division, the Kimberley Steelers. Creston started the scoring in the second period with Vinson Blackmore, assisted by Warren Blackmore. It was looking good until the third period where the scoring went back and forth. The second goal for Creston was scored by Scott Griffioen and assisted once again by Warren. Kimber-ley skated away with the win and a final score of 3-2.
In the second game, the Creston Bruins were bound and determined to win and win they did, defeating the Cranbrook Invis 5-3. Scoring goals for the Bruins in the second game were Warren Blackmore (two), Scott Griffioen and Levi Palmer.
Unfortunately, the last game played against Cranbrook Dodge would see the banner slip through the Bruins’ fingers. Creston started out strong, scoring the first goal of the game, but Cranbrook kept pounding Creston with shot after shot on net. Six of Cranbrook’s shots found the net in the first and second period. Creston attempted to win the game back, scoring two more goals in the third period, but Cranbrook also scored two more in the third period, bringing the final score to 8-3.
The final game was played by the Kimberley Steelers and Cranbrook Dodge. Kimberley played a superior game and proudly carried the peewee C banner home.
The Elk Valley Wild hosted the atom Bruins in Elkford on Sunday. The Creston team played a great game but came up short, thanks in part to the amazing Elk Valley goaltender, with a final score of 3-2. The Bruins have really had an outstanding season, recording only two losses and a colossal 10 wins. The team is stoked for the banner tournament in two weeks in Kimberley. Keep up the hard work, Bruins and bring home the banner!
The Creston atom Chiefs travelled to Fernie on Saturday to take on the Fernie Jr. Ghostriders. The Chiefs were looking to do better than the previous week, when they were caught napping in the first two periods of play. A good week of hard practice paid off for the Chiefs and those first period doldrums were nowhere to be found. Both offense and defense came off the bench charging and six unanswered goals were scored by Creston by the end of the first period. On the bench, the coaching staff has been stressing “proper gap” and “pass when you can, not when you have to” and the strategies are definitely working. The team played good hockey from the goal line out, resulting in a 9-2 win for the Chiefs. This weekend, the atom Chiefs will be travelling to Invermere and Cranbrook to finish up their league schedule.
Grand Forks held its annual tournament this past weekend, in which the Creston Chiefs took part. The tournament win was definitely within reach for the Chiefs as they went into the final game against the Beaver Valley team with a 3-0 record in the round robin portion, defeating Kelowna 5-2, Grand Forks 5-0 and Beaver Valley 8-3. This time around, they suffered a tough loss to Beaver Valley with a final score of 6-3. Goalie Curtis Luke put in some awesome tending in the game against Kelowna, as well as a shut out against the host team, Grand Forks. Two hat tricks were recorded by the Creston team, the first by Eddie Blackmore against Grand Forks and the second by Jaydon Gigliotti in the game against Beaver Valley. Congratulations to Parley Blackmore, who won "hustler of the game" in the final.