Chalk one up for Oceanside’s Midget C hockey team — actually chalk a couple up — as two local teams squared off in the Mid Island Midget C playoff final.
Oceanside had three midget house teams this year and all three teams were competing in a 14-team league Upper Island league broken into a North and South divisions with seven teams each.
According to Ocenaside #3 assistant coach Rob Tompkins, the teams play a 14-game regular season against teams from both divisions, with several exhibition games and tournament games as well.
The top four teams in each division at the end of the regular season advanced to the playoffs.
Oceanside #3 placed first in the North Division, and Oceanside #2 placed third in the North.
O3 opened the playoffs March 6 with a big 8-3 win over Nanaimo #4 and Oceanside #2, crushed Nanaimo #1 (the second seed from the North) 9-3.
In their semifinal game against a tough Cowichan Valley #2 team March 12, Oceanside #3 found themselves down a goal 11 seconds into the game “which put us on the ropes a little. We eventually tied up the game at one on a slick backhand goal by Dawson Balaski,” said Tompkins.
Oceanside rallied back in that one to beat the Capitals 11-6. Mike Tompkins finished the game with 6 goals and 4 assists, Justin Dielman and Matt Grant had two goals each. Ben Hamilton earned the win in net for O3 which put them in the final.
In the evening game, Oceanside #2 also fell behind early to a tough Cowichan Valley #4 team but backstopped by the stellar goaltending of Alec Katchur-Marsh the locals went on to win 6-2 which set the table for an all-Oceanside final.
Ocenaside #2 and Oceansdie #3 faced off last Sunday at the Nanaimo Ice Center for the Mid-Island playoff title. According to Tompkins the teams had several very close games against each other throughout the season “and both teams knew that they had to bring their A-Games.”
Maddy Meyer started in goal for O3, and despite the lingering effects of the flu made several key saves in the first period to keep her team in the game.
By the end of the first period O3 was up 3-2.
Ben Hamilton took over in goal for O3 at the half way mark of the second period and was leading 7-2 with about five minutes remaining (off goals by Justin Dielman, Mike Tompkins, Matt Grant and Connal Spencer) when O2 pulled out all stops and manufactured three goals in under three minutes to close the score to 7-5.
After some furious action, and players firing everything they had at Ben Hamilton, they were not able to get any closer.
Mike Tompkins scored into an empty net to secure the win for Oceanside #3, 8-5.
The coaches for both teams said they were extremely proud of the effort from all of the players, and proud that two Oceanside teams made it to the league final game.