Two tournaments, two impressive results.
The Prince George midget house Canadiens, sponsored by USW Local 1-424 has two out-of-town events under its belt, and has a second-place result and a tournament championship to show for it.
In early November, the team which is coached by Mike Bryce, Shane Lapierre and Steve Ardell, snared silver in an eight-team event in Chase, battling to the final despite having only 11 skaters and two goalies. Prince George was the only non-rep team in the event.
This past weekend, they upped the ante.
The Canadiens took the title in an event in Clearwater, going undefeated in four games. Prince George defeated the Vanderhoof Bears 6-4, blasted the Chase Broncos 8-1, edged the host Ice Hawks 4-3, then scored two empty-net goals late for a 5-2 win over Vanderhoof in the final.
Brendan Doucet scored two goals in the final, and Jonathon Ardell had three assists.
"Both our goalies were very key to our success," said Bryce. "Clayton Hapke played against Chase and Clearwater, and Luca Bertschinger played the opener and final, both against Vanderhoof.
"I can't say a word about any one player in particular as they all, collectively, as a team, contributed to the result. They all deserve credit, and they all made key individual contributions at some point."
The Canadiens are sanctioned by Prince George Minor Hockey Association to attend out-of-town tournaments and tier three/four events. Other members of the team who played in Clearwater are Luca Bertshinger, Devin Hartney, Joey Matzelle, Kyle Serup, Kyler Wilkinson, Austin Hamilton, Jake Picton, Nathan Kwitkoski, Taylor Barber, Jordy Picton, Aaron Antonenko and Clayton Hapke. Also part of the team are Tim Apa, Zach Walker, Kolby Brummond, Chase Brummond and Joey Greenlees.
