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Although outscoring their opponents 63-2 it six games, it wasn’t always a comfortable weekend for Kelowna Rockets at their own peewee tier 1 hockey tournament.
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Breezing through the four-day, eight-team event with six straight wins, capped by an 8-1 victory over the Kelowna Minor Hockey Association’s tier 2 Rockets in the championship game, the host tier 1 team had to deal with an awkward balancing act on the way to the tournament title on Monday at the Rutland West Arena.
“It’s definitely a fine line for the players and coaches have to walk,” conceded Rockets’ head coach, Byron Ritchie, after his team’s extraordinarily dominating performance. “On one hand you don’t want to embarrass anybody, but on the other, you want your kids to play their best at all times.”
At times, it got away from them a bit on both counts on the weekend.
While their superior skills in every facet of the game were on full display, the local 11- and 12-year-olds posted gaudy double-figure wins in their first three games (12-0, 10-0 and 17-1), they took “their foot off the pedal” during the three playoff encounters in which they posted 7-0, 9-0 and 8-1 wins.
“It was good to see the boys play so well when the chips were down, especially early in games,” said Ritchie. “But it was difficult to watch them get into some bad habits when the games got lopsided.”
It’s a scenario Ritchie and assistant coach, Jason Tansem, will have to contend with for much of the season.
Only two weeks earlier, the Rockets waltzed to a tournament triumph in Kamloops and they’ve posted easy wins in league play against Kamloops and Prince George, the only other two tier 1 teams in the B.C. Interior.
Knowing they would have a powerful lineup for the coming season, Ritchie, staff and parents made a bid to have their team included in the top peewee league at the Lower Mainland but it was rejected.
Part of Plan B is to find as much stiff competition as they can in exhibition games and high-level tournaments.
During the Thanksgiving weekend, the Rockets took part in a showcase event in Burnaby, testing their mettle against the always-competitive Burnaby Winter Club and North Shore Winter Club, as well as teams from Semiahmoo, Langley and Vancouver (Thunderbirds).
While they did lose to Burnaby, North Shore and Semiahmoo (in overtime), they were competitive in all three defeats and according to Ritchie, his team was definitely in the mix. The Rockets won handily in games against Langley and Vancouver.
“The top four teams there — including us — appear to be quite a bit better than those in the rest of the province,” Ritchie said.
In an effort to tune up for the prestigious Pat Quinn Classic international tournament in December, the Rockets will travel to Calgary later this month for exhibition encounters against two host teams and one from Medicine Hat.
The Pat Quinn Classic goes Dec. 28-31 in Burnaby and the peewee elite portion of the tournament will involve nine teams, including the Burnaby Winter Club and Semiahmoo.
The Rockets will continue a busy schedule in January, travelling to Phoenix for a tournament and are still hopeful they’ll be accepted to compete in the granddaddy of them all — the 60th annual Quebec International Peewee Hockey tournament Feb. 13-24.
“I’ve heard through the grapevine that we’ll be getting an invitation, but we haven’t received anything official yet,” noted Ritchie, a former NHLer (324 games) with the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks who played in the tournament while a peewee in North Delta.
Should they be accepted, it would be a perfect segue into what is expected to be a berth in the BC Hockey provincial championship tournament in March hosted by Semiahmoo.
But even with all the tournaments, the Rockets will have plenty of time for practice because of the light regular-season schedule. That’s just fine with Ritchie.
“With the lack of competition locally, it’s our responsibility as coaches to utilize our practices to instill solid work ethic and good habits,” he said. “I think we’re doing a good job on both counts by practising at a really high tempo — with speed and quick puck movement — and it showed in the way we played on the weekend.”
Ritchie added that at this stage of the players’ development it isn’t about “X’s and O’s”.
“It’s really all about skating and skill development,” said Ritchie, who witnessed first-hand while closing out his professional career in Switzerland and Sweden how the Europeans work their practice plans. “We don’t judge our play on the scores, but rather on team play, setting goals and achieving them.
“So far, so good.”
Photo Gallery (110 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page
Photo Gallery (110 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page
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