It’s rare that back-to-back championships come three years apart – by definition, one would assume they’d be won in successive years – but that’s the case for the Semiahmoo Ravens U13 A1 hockey team, after a decisive win over the North Shore Winter Club this week.
The Ravens, coached by a pair of former Surrey Eagles bench bosses in Shane Kuss and Matt Erhart, defeated NSWC 6-0 Wednesday at Planet Ice Maple Ridge, to win the B.C. U13 Tier 1 championship.
The U13 squad was the reigning provincial champion at the peewee level, having won that tournament in 2019, too – the last time the event was held. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out B.C. championships in both 2020 and ’21.
Back in 2019, Semiahmoo defeated Burnaby Winter Club to win the B.C. banner.
This time around, the South Surrey/White Rock team battled with Nanaimo, winning 13-1; Ridge Meadows, winning 12-3; Kamloops, who the Ravens beat 11-3; and Prince George, winning 9-3. Following that, they beat North Shore Winter Club in back-to-back games, first wrapping up the round-robin portion of the schedule with an 11-3 win, and then repeating the feat in the final, with the aforementioned shutout.
Treyce Pavlic led the Ravens’ high-powered offence with 14 goals and 25 total points in only six games, while Gavin Bradley was second on the team, with 20 points. Jayden Simpson and Bradley were tied for second on the team in goals, with 11 apiece.
Les Toth and Luka Dhaliwal split the goaltending duties for Semiahmoo, with each playing – and winning – three games.
Semiahmoo has a win-loss record of 43-2 this season, and is ranked as the top U13 team in Western Canada by a handful of hockey websites that track minor hockey in Canada.
Although the B.C. portion of their schedule may be over, they’ll still have a chance to add to the win column later this spring, when the team travels east to compete in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Tournament, which is scheduled for May 9-15.
The event – which routinely features some of the top young teams from across North America and Europe – is normally held in February, but was delayed this year as a result of the pandemic.
It’ll be the second time at the tourney for the Ravens, who also competed there in 2019. In the team’s first game that year, they defeated a team from Russia’s powerhouse SKA St. Petersburg program, and followed that with a win over a team from New Hampshire.
sports@peacearchnews.com
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