Pat Quinn Classic
The tournament has been around since way back in 1962 and that makes it one of Canada’s and the world’s longest running Bantam tourneys, a decade longer than the Medicine Hat Hounds Bantam Tournament, which took place in November for the 43rd time.
Despite the longevity 2015 marked a first for the event — the first time under the name of the late, highly respected Quinn. Tournament Manager Joe Saloustros told Digital Journal the idea to honour Quinn by re-launching under his name came after his death in November of 2014 at the age of 71.
Put on jointly by Burnaby Minor Hockey, the Burnaby Winter Club, Tourism Burnaby, the City of Burnaby and Inside Edge Hockey, Saloustros said all parties jumped at the idea. Quinn’s daughter Kalli Quinn was at the press conference announcing the new name in early December.
Honorary Chair Ronning
The Vancouver Canucks Alumni Assoc. and Burnaby’s own Cliff Ronning, who played under Quinn during his time as a Canuck, were also involved, with Ronning serving as the tournament’s honourary chairman.
“He was such a great person, and I felt that to keep his name, not so much as keep it going or alive, but to make it something the younger generations to come are aware of, that’s why I stepped forward,” Ronning said at the press conference.
“Hockey for Pat was about competing at the highest level, sportsmanship and for the love for the game,” Ronning added. “As a person he just made everyone around him better.”
He said that commemorating the legendary Quinn by re-naming the tourney was in part “about rebooting it to ensure that it becomes a high-level tournament, with elite competition.” Once word got out about the name change he said additional elite teams signed on.
Team from Japan
The 2015 tourney saw a Pee Wee AAA Elite division added for the first time and it was by any standards a great success. Eight teams competed in the Pee Wee Elite division, including teams from Vancouver Island, the lower mainland and the B.C. Interior. The Pee Wee division Japan Samurai traveled the farthest of any team to play in the tournament.
While the Burnaby Winter Club won Japan’s division, beating the Kamloops Blazers 2-1 in a thrilling final on goals by Trevor Wong and Adam Grenier, the Japanese club won bronze and along the way made many fans and friends and managed some big wins, including a 7-1 thrashing of the outmatched Langley Eagles.
The Samurai played a fast brand of hockey and were a disciplined team with a flair for scoring goals. They finished second in the tournament in goals with 44; the Bantam AAA Kelowna Rockets scored 47, while the only other team to notch 40 was the Delta Wild AAA Bantam club, who scored 41 times.
Japan was lead by phenom Aito Iguchi, whose 15 goals and 23 points led the entire event in both categories. Iguchi has been featured on YouTube videos showing his considerable talent at stickhandling and scoring; he was also the subject of a CBC story by Amy Cleveland last November.
Bantam competition
Fourteen Bantam AAA teams and 12 Bantam AAA Elite teams competed. In the AAA division an outstanding performance by Kelowna Rockets goalie Kaleb McEachern saw them beat Seafair Islanders Bantam in the final, 3-1; McEachern stopped 42 shots, including 18 in the final period, two of them breakaways late in the game. Kelowna’s Will Reimer scored twice, one of those goals into an empty net with 30 seconds left.
The bronze medal game in the division was an all-American affair as Phoenix Jr. Coyotes beat the Seattle Sno-Kings, 3-2. Phoenix finished the tournament at 5-1-1. The high-scoring Delta Wild Bantam AAA club wound up only fifth in the division despite their 41 goals and allowing just 5 and finishing at 6-1. But their only loss came in a 2-1 shootout in the quarter-finals to Seafair; their final two wins were in consolation play.
The Wild, incidentally, are a part of the Delta Hockey Academy (DHA) at Delta Secondary School and play in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL), a relatively new league quickly making its way into the upper echelons of minor hockey in Western Canada.
Another CSSHL club in the tournament was the DHA’s Bantam AAA Prep team. In the Bantam Elite division they made it to the final but were beaten by perhaps the most impressive team of the tournament, the Chicago Mission, 5-3. The Mission ran the table, going 6-0, the only undefeated team The Pat Quinn Classic produced.
A highlight of the Bantam AAA Elite Division was the LA Jr. Kings team coached by NHL Hall of Famer and Stanley Cup winner Rob Blake. Blake’s Kings lost in the bronze medal game, 7-2, to the always strong Lethbridge Golden Hawks.
Elite minor hockey
The quality of the teams was high and though some clubs were outmatched, most games were competitive, with the outcomes often in doubt until the final whistle. The passes were crisp, teams executed systems with tremendous focus and yet they also played the game creatively.
There were scores of the dangles young forwards have made a mainstay in minor hockey but the defenders very often did not bite. Virtually every game featured highlight reel saves and magical goals.
Crowds were large and Saloustros said “over 100 scouts…mostly WHL but also BCHL and college” attended, a fact made evident by all the notepads and pens scattered around arenas.
In past years Joe Sakic, Ronning and others who went on to the NHL played the event and while only time will tell if any of these players go on to junior, college or pro careers, they proved they’re capable of playing exciting hockey.
And finally, Pat Quinn had a rich Vancouver legacy, including playing for the Canucks for two seasons, coaching them five years and serving at their General Manager and President for nearly 10. He was also a part owner of the Vancouver Giants and well known for doing great things for hockey and the community at large.
Already a recipient of the Order of Canada and with a hockey tournament named for him in his family’s native Ireland, it is fitting now that the congenial man known as the Big Irishman has been honoured with a local tournament renamed The Pat Quinn Classic.
