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A Kelowna minor hockey team will make a rare appearance at the prestigious Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament.
The Kelowna AAA Rockets were notified this week that their application has been accepted and they will be one of only two teams from B.C. (Semiahmoo is the other) taking part in the 60th annual event involving about 120 of the top-ranked teams around the world from Feb. 13 to 24.
“Very exciting,” said head coach Byron Ritchie, who played at the tournament two consecutive years (1990-91) and is one of more than 1,200 players to participate in the tournament on their way to the NHL or the World Hockey Associatioin. “For most, this will be the experience of their short lifetime and something they will remember forever.
“It’s not only the hockey — playing in a huge arena in front of large crowds against some of the best peewee teams (11-12-year-olds) in the world — but also the whole atmosphere is fantastic during the tournament that coincides with the Quebec City Carnival.”
Ritchie and the Kelowna team applied for acceptance into the tournament during the summer before the 2018-19 Rockets were formed, even though they knew it would be a long shot.
“Usually it’s teams from the winter clubs in Burnaby and North Shore that represent B.C., and as the season went on, when we hadn’t heard from anyone, so we thought it wasn’t going to happen,” explained Ritchie. “So it was a bit of a surprise to get the call on Wednesday from the tournament general manager. We’re thrilled.”
The acceptance into highest-level AAA division confirms the Kelowna team is considered among the best in the province this season, although they’ve had to do a lot of traveling to find stiff competition.
Runaway winners of tournaments in Kamloops and Kelowna earlier this fall, the Rockets are in Calgary this weekend for three exhibition games. And while they don’t have any more games scheduled before Christmas, they will take part in the highly competitive Pat Quinn Classic international tournament in Burnaby in late December. Semiahmoo and the Burnaby Winter Club will be there as well.
The Rockets will also travel to Phoenix for a tournament in preparation for the trip to Quebec.
In the meantime, the team will be looking to raise funds and garner sponsors.
“Now the real work begins,” said Ritchie, who played 324 NHL games with the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks before continuing his pro career in Europe and retiring two seasons ago.
“Suffice to say it’s an expensive proposition,” said Ritchie. “But after a parents meeting on Thursday, there’s a commitment to put our heads together to find ways of defraying some of the cost.”
Upon their return from the trip east, the KMHA team will continue its bid to represent Kelowna and the Thompson-Okanagan region at the BC Hockey provincial championship hosted by Semiahmoo in March.
The last time (as far as can be determined) a team from Kelowna attended the Quebec tournament was in 2004 when Ken Andrusiak was at the helm. He also coached a Kelowna team that attended in 1999, while Grant Sheridan coached a Kelowna team at the tournament in 1998. Kelowna's Josh Gorges, who went on to play more than 700 games in the NHL with San Jose, Montreal and Buffalo, was a member of the '98 team.
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