The Langley Lumberjacks dominated Aldergrove’s Bantam C hockey tournament last weekend.
The Lumberjacks won all five of their games to earn the tournament title, and bring home gold medals.
The Lumberjacks showed off stellar goaltending and defence throughout the tournament, surrendering just two goals in their five contests.
The forwards also played a key role by scoring 33 goals in total.
Attending the tournament were 14 teams from the Lower Mainland and Whatcom County, including all three teams from the host association in Aldergrove.
The Lumberjacks earned shutouts over the Aldergrove Bruins (9-0), Surrey Flyers (8-0), and Aldergrove Hitmen (7-0) during round robin play.
With a 3-0 record, the Lumberjacks faced the fourth-place team from Surrey once more in the semifinal.
This time, the same Surrey team that had been easily bested last time was not going down without a fight.
Surrey made the Lumberjacks work to stay in front, but Langley managed to keep its foes in check and put three unanswered goals on the scoreboard through two periods of play.
Midway through the third period, Surrey scored to end Langley’s 11-period shutout streak. The Lumberjacks answered right back with a goal of their own to make the final 4-1.
The gold medal game was a battle of 4-0 teams as the Lumberjacks faced a similarly undefeated Whatcom.
The American squad proved to be the toughest match of the tournament, and made the Lumberjacks work hard for every entry into their zone.
The Lumberjacks took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Another Langley goal early in the second period had the local fans breathing a bit easier, but Whatcom tallied one of its own less than a minute later.
The Whatcom goal made it a one-goal game again, and seemed to spark a sense of urgency into Langley’s game.
Langley’s forward lines added two more markers in the second, and one final goal in the third to make the final score 5-1.