The Terrace Peewees got second place in a Tier 3 tournament in Prince George last weekend.
With eight teams in the tournament, the Terrace boys won their first three matches, beating Whitehorse, Smithers and a young team from Fort St. John.
That advanced them to finals against Dawson Creek.
Terrace opened the scoring, with a goal late in the first period by Cole Larmour.
The second period saw Dawson Creek score at eight minutes, with Terrace following three minutes later (another goal by Larmour).
Dawson Creek tied up the game 2-2 late in the second.
The third period saw Terrace score early on, this one by Kelton Shinde, putting the boys up 3-2.
“Our boys were starting to really play our game,” said coach Lenny Davis, “All we have to do is kill the clock.”
But with just four minutes left in the game, Dawson Creek got a penalty shot and scored to tie the game 3-3.
A minute later, they scored again.
“With 50 seconds left we pulled our goalie,” said Davis, noting that they staved off three empty net shots, but weren’t able to land one of their own.
“The last 50 seconds was probably the most desperate our kids have had to play this year,” said Davis. “As a coach looking into there eyes after the final buzzer was the hardest thing I have had to do. Knowing these 11-12 years old gave it everything the had only to lose. Welcome to life sometimes boys!”
Davis says that as hard as it was to lose grip of their lead in the last five minutes, losing is good for a team too.
“As one of our other coaches always says, ‘we didn’t lose. We learned.” And as hard as it was for us to lose, I believe we needed to, for us to have a chance at becoming champions.”