Tritons advance to Oldtimers hockey finals at Wurtele

Tritons and Silver Totems face off

Capt(N) Steve Waddell, Base Commander, readies for the ceremonial opening puck drop at the Oldtimers Pacific Region hockey finals. Taking the drop is Tritons’ LCdr Bill Ansell and Capt Roger for the Silver Totems.

 

Peter Mallett, Staff Writer ~

The Men’s Senior Tritons hockey squad are kings of the Pacific region, and now have a shot at national glory.

The Senior Tritons scored a convincing 6-1 win in game three of their best-of-three series against the Comox Silver Totems, Feb 10 at Wurtele Arena.

With the victory, the Tritons now advance to the Canadian Armed Forces Oldtimers Hockey Championship, which will be hosted on base March 6 to 10.

The Tritons started the regional playoffs strong with a 3-1 victory in the series opener on Feb. 9, but their up-island rivals made them sweat in the second game when they leveled a 4-3 overtime win in game two later that day.

“We came out flat in that game and we took a ton of bad penalties which Comox capitalized on,” said Senior Tritons assistant coach MS Andrew Johnston. “We got our discipline back for game three and returned to doing many of the crucial things it takes to be successful in hockey, like staying disciplined and buying into our system and game plan.”

MS Johnston credited the game three turnaround to some standout play by CPO2 Ken Simoneau, along with some good “chemistry” between forwards RAdm Gilles Couturier, LCol Gordon Peckham, and Capt(N) Jason Boyd.

MS Johnston is remaining up-beat about the fortunes for this year’s national tournament chances despite a fifth place finish at last year’s nationals at CFB Borden in Angus.

“I think we can compete with the competition at this year’s finals,” said MS Johnston. “But we will need to play with greater intensity from the opening puck drop to the final horn because our opponents have much bigger player pools to draw from and have bigger rosters.”  

This Canadian Armed Forces Oldtimers Hockey Championship at Wurtele Arena will also feature regional champions from the Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and Prairie regions.  Further details of the tournament field and schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.

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