January 12, 2016
Two Winter Clubs and three Hockey Academies will represent BC hockey this year at the 38th Annual John Reid Memorial Bantam tournament, which gets underway Thursday morning in St. Albert, with sixteen teams in action.
The teams are grouped in four divisions and will play three robin games. BWC and PoE are the two BC teams in the same pool.
The top two teams in each division advance to quarterfinals on Saturday, with the finals on Sunday.
The tournament is widely considered to be the premier bantam tournament in Western Canada, bringing together the top Western Canadian clubs along with top talent from the Western US. It is heavily scouted by WHL teams looking for current and future draft picks.
The tournament was formed in 1978 by a group of St. Albert residents as a Bantam A tournament, and transitioned to a Major Bantam tournament in 1985. The tournament was renamed in 2004 in honor of former St. Albert Sabres coach John Reid, who passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer.
The BC teams will be looking to bring home a fifth straight championship this year.
Defending champions Delta Hockey Academy Wild are back to defend their title, which they won last year with win over the Calgary NW Flames.
Okanagan Hockey Academy won the tournament in 2014 with a 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Jr. Kings.
North Shore won the tournament in 2013 with a 3-2 OT win over the SSAC and took home the bronze last year – so they’ll be looking for for another medal to take back to North Vancouver.
Cloverdale Colts won it 2012, defeating the Semiahmoo Ravens, 5-1.
Burnaby Winter Club are coming into the tournament as the top team in the Lower Mainland Tier 1 division this year, with a 14-0-0 record and an impressive 86 GF – 8 GA record. North Shore is right behind them, with a 12-2-0 record, losing 1-0 and 3-2 to the Bruins in league play.
Pursuit of Excellence have to be the slightly favored of three top Canadian Sports School Hockey League bantam prep teams this year, as winners over BWC at the Medicine Hat tourney. Yale and Delta however are right behind PoE in league standings, and both have games in hand. Delta has the best goals against record of the three however, and by a considerable margin – and have five games in hand on Pursuit, so doubt many will consider the Wild as favorites.
None of BC academy teams showed particularly well in at the Rocky Mountain Classic tournament in Calgary this year, after starting strong, then stumbling in the quarterfinals. The RMC runs concurrently to the Hounds tournament which means a lot of top teams don’t see each other until they get to St. Albert.
The Lethbridge Eagles won the final there with a 4-2 win over Notre Dame. The Rocky Mountain Raiders had a strong tournament, losing the semi to Notre Dame in a shootout. St. Albert then won the bronze, 4-2 over the Raiders.
Below are recaps of the two tourneys from reports that appeared here on BC Hockey Hub earlier this year.
Scroll down for this years JRMT divisions and a full schedule. Hockey Hub will be updating results over the weekend.
Medicine Hat Hounds Tourney Recap:
Pursuit of Excellence (Kelowna) defeated tournament favorite Burnaby Winter Club 3-1 in the final of the 43rd annual Medicine Hats Hounds Bantam A1 Tournament Sunday.
PoE got a pair of goals and an assist from Max Bulawka, plus a goal from team captain, Kjell Kjemhus. Connor McLennon and Kirby Proctor each got an assist. BWC’s lone goal was from Ryan Denney with assists from Massimo Rizzo and Kyler Kovich.
It was the second time Kelowna-based PoE has beaten the Bruins this year. After losing a game 5-1 in the round robin of the BWC-NSWC hosted SuperSeries tournament Sept. 19, POE won the rematch 2-1 the next day for the championship.
Both clubs had come through the round robin 3-0. BWC had done it with a 3-1 win vs Edge in their opener, and then 10-1 over Medicine Hat and 6-2 vs Edmonton CAC.
That set up the quarterfinal game vs Edmonton SSAC, which they won 8-2. The Bruins then met hometown rival North Shore Winter Club who had pushed them hard in a 1-0 decision in their most recent matchup about a week before the tournament But this time it was a 3-0 shutout to put BWC in the final.
PoE had cruised through the round robin with a big 21 GF-GA advantage, in large part due to 11, 12 and 13 point performances from Bulawka, Kjemhus and McLennon (02), respectively.
In the first game, they downed Fort Saskatchewan 8-3, then beat Edmonton Knights of Columbus 8-4, and Colorado 10-0. In the quarterfinals they routed Lloydminster 8-1 and then beat CSSHL rival Edge (Calgary), 5-3 to set up the rematch against BWC for the championship.
Rocky Mountain Classic Recap:
In the end it was the Lethbridge Eagles who claimed top honors at the 4th annual Rocky Mountain Classic Bantam AAA Invitational Tournament in Calgary on Sunday.
The Eagles topped Notre Dame 4-2 in the final.
St Albert and Rocky Mountain played for the bronze, with St. Albert winning 4-2.
None of the 4 pool top seeds had made it through the semis – number 2 seed Notre Dame advanced after knocking out top seed Rocky Mountain Raiders 5-4 in a shootout, while Lethbridge advanced after downing St. Albert 3-2 in another tight game, between two #2 seeds.
Three top seeded teams were eliminated in the quarter finals, including the top two BC teams.
Delta fell 4-2 to Lethbridge. Yale lost 5-4 to Notre Dame. Sherwood Park lost 5-3 to Saint Albert. The Rocky Mountain Raiders were the only top seed to get through to the semis, with a 5-2 win over Calgary North Stars.
JOHN REID DIVISIONS –
Reid – Skybox Grill
Rocky Moutain Raiders
Dallas Stars Elite
Delta HA Wild
Sherwood Park Flyers
Reid – Kal-Tire Division
NSWC Winter Hawks
St. Albert Sabres
LA Jr. Kings
Notre Dame Hounds
Iginla – C2 Homes
Pursuit of Excellence
BWC Bruins
SSAC Lions
Colorado T-Birds
Iginla – SVS Group
Winnipeg Warriors
Colorado T-Birds
OHA
St. Albert Sabres
SCHEDULE:
G#
14-Jan
Arena
Home
GF
Visitor
GF
1
8:00 AM
Go Auto
Dallas Stars Elite
Sherwood Park Flyers
2
8:15 AM
Mark Messier
Delta HA Wild
Rocky Mountain Raiders
3
10:45 AM
Go Auto
Notre Dame Hounds
St. Albert Sabres
4
11:00 AM
Mark Messier
Los Angeles Jr. Kings
NSWC Winterhawks
5
11:15 AM
Troy Murray
SSAC Lions
Pursuit of Excellence
6
1:30 PM
Go Auto
Colorado Thunderbirds
BWC Bruins
7
1:45 PM
Mark Messier
Winnipeg Monarchs
Lethbridge Golden Hawks
8
2:00 PM
Troy Murray
Calgary Bisons
Yale HA
9
4:15 PM
Go Auto
Sherwood Park Flyers
Delta HA Wild
10
4:30 PM
Mark Messier
Rocky Mountain Raiders
Dallas Stars Elite
0
7:15 PM
Go Auto
OPENING
CEREMONIES
11
7:45 PM
Mark Messier
NSWC Winterhawks
Notre Dame Hounds
12
8:00 PM
Go Auto
St. Albert Sabres
Los Angeles Jr. Kings
G#
15-Jan
Arena
Home
GF
Visitor
GF
13
8:45 AM
Mark Messier
Pursuit of Excellence
Colorado Thunderbirds
14
9:00 AM
Go Auto
BWC Bruins
SSAC Lions
15
11:30 AM
Mark Messier
Lethbridge Golden Hawks
Calgary Bisons
16
11:45 AM
Go Auto
Yale HA
Winnipeg Monarchs
17
2:00 PM
Troy Murray
Rocky Mountain Raiders
Sherwood Park Flyers
18
2:15 PM
Mark Messier
Dallas Stars Elite
Delta HA Wild
19
2:30 PM
Go Auto
St. Albert Sabres
NSWC Winterhawks
20
4:45 PM
Troy Murray
Los Angeles Jr. Kings
Notre Dame Hounds
21
5:00 PM
Mark Messier
Colorado Thunderbirds
SSAC Lions
22
5:15 PM
Go Auto
BWC Bruins
Pursuit of Excellence
23
7:30 PM
Troy Murray
Winnipeg Monarchs
Calgary Bisons
24
8:00 PM
Go Auto
Yale HA
Lethbridge Golden Hawks
G#
16-Jan
Arena
Home
GF
Visitor
GF
0
7:00 AM
TBA
Serdachny Powerskating
2016 JRMT PLAYOFF ROUND
25
8:00 AM
Go Auto
1st Kal-Tire Division
2nd Skybox Division
26
8:15 AM
Mark Messier
1st Skybox Division
2nd Kal-Tire Division
27
8:30 AM
Troy Murray
1st SVS Group Division
2nd C2 Homes Division
28
8:30 AM
Akinsdale
1st C2 Homes Division
2nd SVS Group Division
29
10:45 AM
Go Auto
3rd Skybox Division
3rd Kal-Tire Division
30
11:00 AM
Mark Messier
3rd SVS Group Division
3rd C2 Homes Division
31
11:15 AM
Troy Murray
4th Kal-Tire Division
4th Skybox Division
32
1:30 PM
Go Auto
Semi Final – Winner G#27
Semi Final – Winner G#25
33
1:45 PM
Mark Messier
Semi Final – Winner G#28
Semi Final – Winner G#26
34
2:00 PM
Troy Murray
4th C2 Homes Division
4th SVS Group Division
G#
17-Jan
Arena
Home
GF
Visitor
GF
35
8:15 AM
Troy Murray
Loser G#34
Loser G#31
36
8:30 AM
Go Auto
Loser G#30
Loser G#29
37
8:30 AM
Mark Messier
Loser G#27
Loser G#25
38
11:00 AM
Troy Murray
Loser G#28
Loser G#26
39
11:15 AM
Go Auto
Bronze Medal – Loser G#32
Bronze Medal – Loser G#33
40
11:15 AM
Mark Messier
C Final – Winner G#34
C Final – Winner G#31
41
1:45 PM
Troy Murray
B Final – Winner G#29
B Final – Winner G#30
42
2:00 PM
Go Auto
Championship – Winner G#33
Championship – Winner G#32