The wave hit Gibsons Saturday night –– and was it ever a Tsunami.
In its hometown opener, the brand new Pacific Junior Hockey League team Coastal Tsunami defeated the Port Moody Panthers 7-1.
It was mere minutes after the ceremonial puck drop at Gibsons & Area Commmunity Centre (done by Gibsons Mayor Silas White, Regional District chair Leonard Lee, PJHL commissioner Trevor Alto, Sunshine Coast Junior Hockey Society president Stu Frizzell and Tsunami director of operations Rick Hopper) and just under four minutes into the inaugural game, the Tsunami got their inaugural hometown goal.
Raydon Parkes scored, assisted by hometown players, Laszlo Istvanffy and Ben Walker of Gibsons. (Walker would go on to get two more assists, Istvanffy one more.)
The crowd’s roar (and a spectator “wave” urged on by the Canucks’ hype man Crazy P) had just enough time to die down before Parkes did it again, scoring six minutes later with assists from Eric Stinson of Sechelt and goalie-captain Nick Peters (Powell River).
Much of the crowd sat in new bucket seats volunteers installed over a week this summer. The Sunshine Coast Junior Hockey Society is working on more upgrades to the facility, more information at scjhs.ca.
The second period was scoreless but the Tsunami brought fire to the third.
Kieran Wilkie scored 30 seconds into the period and Ethan Smid followed that up two minutes later, scoring two goals in within seconds of one another. Sechelt’s Rockie Nordvie provided the assist to Smid’s second goal, along with Istvanffy.
The Panthers’ Sahijpal Aujla got the lone goal in past goalie and captain Nick Peters during a power play.
Following a goal from Oliver Nottingham at the period’s halfway mark, Smid scored his third goal of the game and the Tsunami’s first hattrick in the last two seconds of the game.
This was the Tsunami’s third win of the season: they not only won both of their pre-season games, but won two games in Abbotsford before their hometown opener (those games were much closer, with scores of 5 - 4 and 2 - 1 respectively).
The Tsunami host the White Rock Whalers on Friday. See more at coastalhockey.ca.
