The Abbotsford Hawks Bantam C1 club traveled to the desert earlier this month and returned home with a banner.
The Hawks took home a Bantam division title at the 19th annual Phoenix Presidents’ Day Invitational, which took place in the Arizona city from Feb. 14 to 17.
Abbotsford Bantam C1 is a rec team and there is no hitting in rec hockey in Canada, but in Phoenix this was a full contact tournament with hitting that a lot of the kids hadn’t had experience with before.
Hawks head coach Jay Campbell put the kids through two hitting clinics before the team headed down to Phoenix to prepare them for the hitting.
Abbotsford opened the event with a 7-4 loss to Arizona Hockey Union, and then also lost to Idaho Falls in a shootout.
The club got on the winning track with a 7-2 win over Tuscon in game three.
After the round robin Abbotsford had three points (two for the win and one for the shootout loss). This was enough to qualify to be in the final against the first team that defeated them, the Arizona Hockey Union.
The final saw Abbotsford skate away with the narrow 4-3 win. After the handshakes the team were given their gold medals, and then team captain Matthew Lanphear and alternate captain James Young accepted the championship banner from the tournament.
The team roster included:
#2 Rylan Lode
#3 Curtis Trounce
#4 Carter Barnbrook
#6 Mitchell Hohmeier
#7 Inderjot Gill
#8 Hasan Khangura
#9 Kyle Kobes
#10 James Young
#11 Brennan McTaggart
#12 Nicholas Campbell
#14 Jacob Byers
#15 Tanner Louis
#17 Matthew Lanphear
#19 Jahaan Gill
#20 Austin Buss
#21 Ha-Neul McRae
#23 Domonic Phinney
#35 Kevin Hayer
The coaching staff consisted of:
Head coach: Jay Campbell
Assistant coach: David Lanphear
Assistant coach: Brad Barnbrook
Assistant coach: Alex McRae
Safety person: Jason McTaggart
Manager: Jamie Young
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