The Whitehorse Atom Development Team doesn’t need to develop their never-say-die spirit.
After posting a huge comeback in Salmon Arm earlier this season, the Whitehorse squad did it again - this time in a playoff game - at the Squamish Atom Family Day Tournament in B.C. on Monday.
“That was probably the best game of the tournament for everyone to watch, including us,” said head coach Derek Johnstone.
“It was quite a game. Something to be a part of, that’s for sure.”
Whitehorse went on to take silver out of 16 teams at the Tier 3 tournament following a thrilling comeback in the semifinal.
Down 5-1 with just 10 minutes left in regulation, Whitehorse came back to defeat the Oceanside Generals 6-5 in a shootout.
Trailing by four, Whitehorse’s Tanner Gorrell scored to make it 5-2 before Jase Johnstone made it 5-3 on a pass from Luke Cozens
Seth Sheardown-Waugh then “pretty much took over,” scoring two goals to tie it with less than two minutes left.
Sheardown-Waugh found the back of the net in the shootout and Whitehorse goalie Ben Power stopped all three shooters at the other end for the win.
“We showed a little resilience like we did in Salmon Arm,” said Derek.
The Whitehorse team clipped some wings to open the tournament, downing the Squamish Eagles 8-3 and the Langley Eagles 6-3. They then sent the Powell River Regals packing with a 7-2 win.
Whitehorse advanced to the semifinal with a 13-0 shellacking of the Port Moody Panthers in the quarterfinal. Jonny Timmons racked up five goals and an assist in the game and Power got the shutout.
Following the dramatic semifinal win, Whitehorse lost 3-2 to the Whistler Winter Hawks in the final with goals from Ken Stalder and Ethan Candow.
“It was a great tournament,” said Johnstone. “There were quite a few teams equal to us we played off of well. Right from the goaltending, we had three strong lines - I really couldn’t ask anything else from the team. We showed character, resilience, came back from a 5-1 deficit to get to the final. I think they learned a lot from that game.”
At the Salmon Arm Atom Development Tournament in December, the Whitehorse development team scored seven straight goals to comeback from down 4-0 against a team from Penticton.
Whitehorse won two of their first three games but were squeezed out of the playoffs through goal differential.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com