The Thompson Blazers scored a 4-3 victory over the North Island Silvertips to win the bronze medal at the Richmond International midget hockey tournament on Monday.
The Blazers, who are based in Chase and play in the B.C. Major Midget League, opened the tournament by losing to the Arizona Bobcats and playing to a tie with the Edmonton Maple Leafs. The Blazers then beat the Silvertips and the Mission, Ariz., U18s, to finish atop their pool.
The Blazers then scored a 2-0 victory over Compete Hockey Academy of Post Falls, Idaho, in a quarterfinal game, but lost 4-3 to the Bobcats in a semifinal.
Forwards Max James and Dexter Robinson led the Blazers with seven points in the seven tournament games.
Each scored three times.
Forward Dustin Vasil added six points, including two goals, while defenceman Cole McCaskill and forward Nick Chzowski each had two goals and three assists.
Goaltender Griffin Baillie was 3-1-0, while Kyle Michalovsky went 1-1-1.
The Blazers are at home Saturday, 5 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m., to the Vancouver-Northeast Chiefs.
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The North Kamloops Lions beat Vernon 5-3 in an exhibition midget Tier 1 hockey game Sunday.
Myles Jarvis-Rorison, Eric Heichert, Nick Panter, Adam Struch and Jacob Coelho had the goals for the Lions, who are to return to league action with games against Kelowna and Vernon on the weekend.
Nolan Munden and Riley Woodland split the goaltending Sunday.
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The Timbits Crushers got by the Timbits Rockets 11-8 in a Novice Orange exhibition hockey game Friday at Memorial Arena.
The game was 6-6 after the second period. The Crushers broke it open with a five-goal third.
Zakery Anderson scored six times to lead the Crushers, with Grady Egeland collecting three goals, and Ty Turner and Owen Cupello getting one apiece.
Max Smith, Nate Van Unen and Matteo Rawlings scored wice apiece each to lead the Rockets. Ryan Watson and David Browning each tallied once, and Jake Poulsen set up two markers.
Jake Bradley was in net for the Crushers, while Ryan Larsen was between the pipes for the Rockets.
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Forwards Brayden Point and Jake Virtanen scored shootout goals to give Team Pacific a 5-4 victory over Finland on Tuesday at the U17 World Hockey Challenge that is being played in Drummondville and Victoriaville, Que.
Defenceman Joe Hicketts, who is from Kamloops and is Team Pacific’s captain, had one assist. Forward Ryan Gropp, also from Kamloops, went pointless.
On Monday, Hicketts and Gropp both were pointless in a 6-3 loss to Sweden.
Defenceman Jordan Thomson of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers had two assists Monday as Team West lost 6-4 to Finland.
Team Pacific (0-2-0-1) and Team West (0-0-0-3) meet today at 4:30 p.m. Team Pacific needs to win in regulation time to advance to the playoff round.
