Powell River Minor Hockey Association hosted a midget hockey tournament recently. Teams from Oceanside, Nanaimo, Gold River, Comox and Hollyburn (West Vancouver) all came to play at Powell River Recreation Complex.
After the round robin four teams remained—Powell River’s Armitage and Shearwater, as well as Nanaimo and Hollyburn.
Nanaimo and Shearwater played off for third and fourth, Shearwater proving to be too much for Nanaimo and taking home third place. The big game was yet to come with two undefeated teams, Armitage against Hollyburn, going head-to-head for the gold medal win.
Right from the faceoff this was a fast-paced game with both teams having chances, but it was Powell River’s Cole Sansalone who opened the scoring with a blast from the point getting past the Hollyburn netminder. Moments later Cole, with another blast from the point, made it 2-0.
Hollyburn did not let up and scored two in the second period to tie the game, then Hollyburn scored in third period to take the lead.
With time running out Armitage pulled their goalie and Braeden Budgell scored a huge goal to tie it late in the third forcing overtime.
Not long into overtime Powell River’s Wade Biasutti took the puck to the net and jammed it in to score in a thrilling victory.
Most valuable player awards went to Nico and Cole Sansalone, Biasutti, Matt Boese and Branden Houle.
“This was truly a team effort as the Hollyburn team is one of the stronger teams in the Lower Mainland. To beat them was a huge accomplishment,” said Sam Sansalone, the team’s coach.
