Penticton’s Atom Development teams experienced the highs of victory and the lows of defeat in their 14-team tournament over the weekend.
Penticton1 finished with two wins in four games, including a 7-5 win over Burnaby. Travis Bravo led the Vees with two goals, while Dexter Materi, Cole Wadsworth, Carson Burnett, Will Mohns and Tagg Moog scored.
“We had a great time and the kids worked super hard,” said Penticton1 coach Jamie Materi.
Penticton1 wrapped up round robin play with a 9-5 loss to Coquitlam. Materi led with two goals, while Mohns, Wadsworth and Landon Gerow scored.
“I thought the team played really well. We fought hard,” said Materi after the Coquitlam game. “Like I said to the kids, we were right there for most of the game. We were there until probably the last 10 minutes. Kind of let the pressure down. The kids played well for their second game of the day.”
Penticton1 opened the tournament Friday with an 8-3 loss to Surrey.
“Friday’s are always tough. It’s hard for them to get up,” said Materi. “I think if we learned a little bit from Friday night, Saturday morning the first game, we did amazingly well (6-5 come-from-behind win over Salmon Arm). We beat a team that we lost 9-3 to last weekend. We played excellent hockey. They did extremely well.”
The Penticton Game Time Sports Vees ended their tournament with a 7-5 loss to Squamish. They trailed 5-1 in the third. Kayden Clarke and Ryan McMillan each scored twice, while Cole Beresford rounded out the scoring.
“I felt that we played hard,” said Vees coach Trevor Aubie. “It took us two periods to start playing like a team. It showed in the third period.”
In their final game of round robin action, the Vees settled for a 4-4 decision against the Burnaby Bulldogs after leading 4-2.
Vees coach Trevor Aubie said his team played well, being hard on pucks and back checking.
“They came out with a much better effort than we did earlier in the day (Saturday),” said Aubie, whose team lost 9-1 to Surrey in the morning. “Overall we were happy with the day.”
Aubie said his team did a better job of getting the puck in the offensive zone, as well as dumping it in low and getting traffic to the net.
“We got more shots on net. Overall those little things added up,” he said.
The Vees opened the tournament with a 7-4 loss to Salmon Arm on Friday.