Finishing seventh in their home tournament isn’t what the Penticton peewee Tier 3 Vees had in mind.
Vees coach Ian Fotheringham said they didn’t give themselves a chance to reach the finals because of a couple of round robin games. The weekend did end on a good note as they defeated Kamloops 8-3, the same team they lost 6-4 against to start the tournament.
“It’s always nice to finish the last game with a win,” he said. “They are happy about that. They got to redeem themselves because they thought they should have had a better fate in the Friday night game. Too much individual effort and then they started playing as a team.”
In the final, Isaac Newson netted a hat-trick, while Callum McGill scored twice with one goal each by Michael Pugachev, Kieran Roy and Mark Andrews. As the tournament went on the Vees overall play improved. The Vees coach said his players started playing good, exciting hockey.
“They played a lot more of a team game. A lot less selfish and moved the puck around a lot more compared to the Friday night game,” he said.
Along with playing better, Fotheringham said his players were more focused on details and taking less penalties, something they have been working on. In the loss to Kamloops, Lucas Byrne, Tyler Kelly, Noah Ouellette and Liam Whyte scored. In an 8-0 win over Spokane, Roy popped in the first one, while Kelly, Byrne, Roy scored his second, Newson, Zach Evanoff, Scott Fotheringham and Brendan Lobb scored. In their 5-2 loss to Abbotsford, Lobb and Newson scored.
Merritt defeated Langley to win the tournament.