The growing number of ice-hockey players on Bowen Island has produced something coveted in minor hockey a tournament win. Island Pee Wees Payton Grundy, 11, and teammate Ted Duffield, 12, are on the West Van Thunder C2 team that won the 'Blues Blast' tourney in the Sunshine Coast last weekend.
The team breezed through round-robin play, a 12-0 shellacking of Powell River sending a message they were for real.
Along the way, Grundy and Duffield, both power forwards with finesse, contributed to the scoring. Duffield recorded a hat-trick in one game and in another was named MVP while Grundy recorded a four assists game.
In total, the team was 5-0, including a 5-1 win over Aldergrove in the final; throughout the tourney they outscored their opposition, 32-6. Spencer Grundy, Payton's dad, called the tournament an "incredible" experience for the kids who now enter postseason play with confidence.
"They clinched the league banner which will be hung from the rafters in the West Vancouver Ice arena some time next week," he said. "And then they begin their Cinderella season by taking home ice advantage into the playoffs."
Other island kids playing for West Van teams include goalie Keelan Hondro, whose rep team came second in a tourney in Seattle earlier in the season, Angus Ingram, Connolly 'the Con Man' Ingram, River Hooper, Declan Morris-Schwarz (whose brother Alexander is taking a year off), Peter 'Boom Boom' Blomberg, Christian 'Puckstopper' Perroni and Ryan 'the Hammer' Hanen.
