The St. John’s Maple Leafs and East Coast Blizzard reached the Round of 16 playoffs, but that’s as good as it got for Newfoundland teams at the East Coast Ice Jam major midget and major bantam hockey tournament staged in Halifax over the weekend.
In the midget division, all five provincial major midget league teams took part, but only the Leafs and Blizzard reached the playoffs before they were promptly dispatched, the Leafs by a 3-1 loss to Kohltech Valley Wildcats and the Blizzard by a 3-2 setback to Northern Moose.
In round-robin play, the Leafs were 3-0 and the Blizzard were 1-1-1. Central IcePak and Tri-Pen Osprey were 1-2 and surprisingly, the Western Kings were 0-3. Western is running away with the major midget league, having locked up first place since before Christmas.
In bantam play, only the Central IcePak reached the playoffs, winning their first game 4-3 over Central Attack before dropping a 3-2 decision to the Western Hurricanes in the quarter-finals.
The IcePak were 2-0-1 in the round-robin. Other teams in the provincial AAA bantam league, St. John’s Hitmen, Tri-Pen Ice and Tricom, were all 1-2.
Goalie William Dyke of St. John’s, defenceman Dawson Crane of Tri-Pen and forward Kobe Burt of Central were named to the first all-star team. Central teammates Nickolas Dyson and Bradley Blake were second-team all-stars.
