Oceanside’s Bantam Rep Generals capped off their 2011/2012 campaign in style Wednesday evening as they won in overtime to claim the gold medal in their division at the Port Coquitlam International Bantam Hockey Tournament.
There were some 60 teams in all entered in the tournament — including 12 in the Generals’ silver division — which started on Saturday.
“It’s big tournament,” Oceanside head coach Dave Johnston confirmed. “The guys had a blast.”
The Bantam Generals went undefeated in five games to put themselves in the gold medal game against a team from Sidney (Peninsula) and were trailing 3-2 with time winding down.
“We tied it up with 15.5 seconds left, and then won it in the first overtime.
“It’s a pretty big thing,” Johnston said proudly, pointing out, “it was a great team win, and there were some outstanding performances.”
He pointed to their starting goalie Isaac Stevens, who was named the top defensive player of the tournament.
“He’s been stellar for us all year, and he was just unreal throughout the whole tournament — he made one save in the gold medal game that was one of the best saves I’ve ever seen — it was incredible.”
According to Johnston, Stevens stopped a hard shot off the stick of a player coming in hard down the wing; the puck hit his pad, went up and over him and was dropping in behind for what looked to be a sure goal “when he spun around and knocked it out of mid air with stick.
“Unbelievable,” Johnston said of the gold medal. “Just an incredible way to end the season.”