Thursday, January 15, 2015
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sports & recreation Submit results to 250-949-6225 Fax 250-949-7655 or email us at sports@northislandgazette.com • Deadline 10 am Monday
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Tell us about items of interest to the sports community. January 16-17 Broughton Curling Club ladies open bonspiel, 7 p.m. Fri., all day Saturday. Theme: Curling Around the World, with costumes, Saturday evening social. $240 team/$60 per person until Jan. 15. Info, Lisa, 250230-4749 or Charlotte, 778-686-7788. January 16-18 Minor hockey Port McNeill Minor Hockey Novice Jamboree, Chilton Regional Arena. Game times tba; raffle table, 50/50 draws, concession, more. January 17 Rep hockey North Island Eagles bantams host Cowichan Valley, 2 p.m., Port Hardy; Eagles peewees hosts Juan de Fuca in league play, 4:15 p.m., Port Hardy; Eagles atom development hosts Victoria, 5 p.m., Port McNeill. January 18 Rep hockey North Island Eagles atom development hosts Victoria, 9:30 a.m., Port McNeill. Eagles peewees hosts Juan de Fuca in league play, 10 a.m., Port Hardy.
Wild atoms comeback falls short J.R. Rardon Gazette editor PORT ALICE—The North Island Eagles atom development hockey team fell short of a win Saturday at Doug Bondue Arena. But after a couple of periods of misery, they at least managed 20 minutes of fun before falling 9-7 to Nanaimo in Division 3 play. The atoms, missing two top defensemen and playing just their third game in a month, looked sluggish while falling behind 7-2 through the first two periods. Then, in a startling reversal, the Eagles scored three quick goals on their first shift of the third period and twice closed within a goal before Nanaimo hung on to clinch the game with an insurance goal with 3:09 to play. “We just weren’t moving our feet,” Eagles coach Ryan Handley said of the first two periods. “We were puck-watching.” Atom development games are played without the ice-cleaning break enjoyed by rep teams at older levels — “We don’t get to come in the locker room and kick garbage cans around,” assistant coach
David Klatt of the North Island Eagles, right, dives to slow the charge of Nanaimo’s Lucas Laukkanen during their game at Doug Bondue Arena in Port Alice Saturday, Jan. 10. J.R. Rardon
Steve Verbrugge joked. But that didn’t stop the coaching staff from delivering a “pep” talk between the second and third periods. “Our coach Ryan went Tortorella on us and we got our momentum back,” forward Tyler Roper said, referring to the incendiary former Vancouver Canucks coach. Handley himself was more circumspect, but did not refute young Roper’s claim.
January 23-25 Curling Fort Rupert Curling Club ladies open bonspiel. Draw times to be announced; concession, lounge open Gazette staff throughout weekend. Rhys Dutcyvich scored a For info or to register, hat trick and Luke Gage netemail porthardycurl- ted the third-period, gameing@gmail.com. winner as the North Island Eagles peewee hockey team Jan. 30-Feb. 1 rallied for a 5-2 win over Minor hockey Port Hardy Minor the host Alberni Bulldogs Hockey Bantam in Vancouver Island Hockey tournament, Don League play Saturday. After Alberni grabbed Cruickshank Memorial Arena. Game times leads of 1-0 and 2-1, the tba; raffle table, 50/50 Eagles roared back with the draws, concession, final four goals of the game, more. in the last 8:26 of the third period, to win going away. February 7 Goalie Kayden Jones Rep hockey picked up the win in net North Island Eagles and Joey Grant added a goal atom development for the Eagles (4-3-2), who hosts Sooke, 4 p.m., moved into sole possession Port McNeill. of third place in the Division
“It was kind of quiet on the bench, and coach (Jason) Roper were asking them if they were having any fun,” Handley recalled of the break following the second period. “I came in and told them to look at the scoreboard, then asked if they were having any fun. They said, ‘No.’ So I said, ‘Let’s go have some fun.’” The next few minutes were a blast. Tyler Roper scored back-toback goals on his first
two trips up the ice following the puck-drop, nine seconds apart. Teammate Ethan Bono added another less than a minute later, and the 7-2 deficit was suddenly down to 7-5. After a couple of shift changes, Bono was back at it, keeping the puck himself on a 3-on-2 rush and lifting the puck top shelf from the left circle to make it 7-6 at 4:18 of the third. Nanaimo, which had switched goalies after
pushing its lead to 6-2 midway through the game, went back to starter Hayden Landa. It made a difference, slowing the Eagles’ charge and allowing the Clippers to go back ahead 8-6 on a goal with 9:54 to play. But Bono capped his third-period hat trick with a power-play tally from the low slot to make it 8-7 with 6:31 left to play. But despite carrying the momentum, the Eagles were
unable to puncture Landa’s defence the rest of the way, and the Clippers’ Kane Law wrapped up the scoring on his own power-play goal later in the period. The Eagles were without second-year defensemen Cole Klughart, on vacation with his family, and Skyler Evans, who was visiting his parents and a younger brother born 11 weeks premature in Vancouver just four days earlier. But Handley thought the long layoff between games had more to do with the atoms’ sluggish start. “With the schedule we had in December, it’s been hard keeping them in game mode,” he said. The atoms will have plenty of chances to get back in the groove, and most of them will be on the North Island. Saturday’s game was their first at home since early November, but they’ll finish up the regular season with seven of their last eight league games on the North Island. That run begins this weekend, as the Eagles host Victoria in Port McNeill for games at 5 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
Peewees rally late for win over Alberni 3 standings. After the Bulldogs opened scoring with the only goal of the first period, Dutcyvich drew the Eagles even at 5:35 of the second off an Avory Collins assist. The 1-1 score carried into the third period, but Alberni struck again less than a minute in to restore its one-goal lead. Dutcyvich again knotted the score at 11:34 of the third, and the Eagles took their first lead on Gage’s goal less than two minutes later. Dutcyvich completed his hat trick with 3:15 left to play to make it a 4-2 game, and Grant tallied with 1:45 left to provide the final
margin. Gage, Payton Laming and Tynan Klein-Beekman contributed assists in the win. The peewees return to play at home for the first time in 2015 this weekend, facing Juan de Fuca at 4:15 p.m. Saturday in Port Hardy. Bantams lose, tie The North Island Eagles bantam hockey club bounced back from a loss to leagueleading Oceanside Saturday to force a 5-5 draw with the Campbell River Tyees during a two-day road trip last weekend. But the bantams probably felt it should have been a loss and a win.
The Eagles led Sunday’s game 4-1 after Evan Fox scored midway through the second period. But the host Tyees charged back with three straight goals in the first nine minutes of the third period to tie the game 4-4. David Charlie put the Eagles back in front by converting a Mandy Foldy assist with just under six minutes remaining, but the 5-4 lead was short-lived as Campbell River scored again with 4:30 left to provide the final margin. Clayton Bono, Devin White and Tanner Roberts also scored for the bantams. Fox, Bono, Carson Strang and Bree-Anna Henderson
notched assists in the draw. On Saturday, the Eagles suffered an 8-1 loss to Oceanside, the runaway Division 3 leaders. The teams skated to a 2-2 draw in Port Alice in November, but the bantams were unable to duplicate that defensive showing against the league’s top-scoring team. Roberts scored the lone Eagles’ goal, with assists to Bono and Strang. Oceanside, a Tier 2 club, wrapped up the regular season with a 9-1-2 record and 20 points. The Tier 3 Eagles are 3-5-3 and host Cowichan Valley at 2 p.m. Saturday in Port Hardy.