The New Westminster peewee C2 Royals had a perfect 5-0 record over the weekend, winning the annual North Vancouver Christmas hockey tournament.
The Royals defeated previously undefeated Coquitlam C6 2-0 in the tournament championship final before a very large and raucous crowd.
The game stayed scoreless until late in the second period when Carson Bujnowicz converted a long breakout pass from Oscar Porcellato to give the Royals a slim one-goal lead.
With both teams fighting for every inch on the ice, chances were few until the Coquitlam goaltender misplayed a Theo Kim dump-in and the puck found its way into the back of the net to give New Westminster a 2-0 lead with just three minutes to play.
Coquitlam pulled its goalie and poured it on, but Royal starter Keegan Melenychuk was equal to the task, stopping every puck he faced en route to the shutout win. Melenychuk’s biggest save came in the second period when he dived across the crease to snare a hard one-timer with his trapper from a Coquitlam forward.
In Game 1, the Royals faced off against North Van C1 and cruised to a 9-2 victory with Bujnowicz leading the way with four goals and Ash Rutherford chipping in two more in a decisive win.
Game 2 was a nail biter that came right down to the wire with Bujnowicz notching his third of the game with just 48 seconds left on the clock to give the Royals a 6-5 win over a shocked North Van C5 team.
The Royals met Burnaby C1 in Game 3 and the game was very tight until Piero Ciprian converted a beautiful cross crease pass from Sasha Slupskyy for the tap-in, sparking an eventual 6-3 win.
The Royals met another strong North Van C4 team in Game 4 that saw defenceman Andrew Bishop score two laser-beam slappers from the point.
First-year goaltender Alicia Narain went the distance in goal as the Royals doubled up North Van, 4-2.
Bujnowicz led the tournament with 10 goals for the Royals.
