Following weeks of anticipation and high hopes, the 100 Mile Sport Shop Midget Reps finished in seventh place at last week's BC Hockey Midget Tier 3 Provincial Championships in Cranbrook.
Sport Shop represented the Cariboo Zone at the 11-team tournament, which they opened with an encouraging 4-1 win over Dawson Creek.
However, the Sport Shop boys couldn't find their legs earl and got behind in game 2 against Cranbrook, closing the first period with a 2-0 deficit.
Team manager Bill Forman says once they got back on the ice, his boys seemed to wake up a bit.
"They out shot Cranbrook for the rest of the game and just owned them."
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for a win and Sport Shop lost 5-4.
Forman says an early morning game the next day with Whitehorse didn't leave enough time for recuperation. The resulting 4-1 loss for Sport Shop was devastating, and Forman says it was "game over" for the team after that.
Later that same day, they faced Sooke, which was the eventual second-place winner, and were handed a 6-0 shutout.
Some redemption was gained in their final game with Langley, which went to a 2-2 tie. Jacob Remanente scored Sport Shop's tying goal with just 33 seconds left on the game clock. Although it lifted their spirits, the tie game wasn't enough to push their standings any further than seventh place, Forman says.
"The team felt disappointed. They'd expected to do a lot better. There were a lot of tears in the dressing room afterwards."
Despite their disappointment, the players didn't lose sight of the fact they had earned their way to provincials and that in itself was a worthy accomplishment.
Top Sport Shop snipers at the tournament were Matt Pistell and Micky Turner.
Standout players were Kevin Raimundo, Lucas Vitik, goalie Sean Galarneau, and Reece Forman, who at the end of the tournament, received an invitation from the Trail Smoke Eaters junior hockey club to attend their main camp.