Ethan Bono scored the game-winner on a power play late in the second period as the North Island Eagles atom development hockey team downed Kerry Park 6-4 and claimed the championship of the Comox Valley Remembrance Day Weekend hockey tournament in Comox this month.
The Eagles finished 5-0 in the tournament, with goalie Griffin Handley backstopping all five victories.
It was the second meeting of the teams in the tournament. In the final round of pool play, a pair of third-period goals by Tyler Roper lifted the Eagles to a 3-1 win over the Islanders and top seed from the pool into the playoffs.
In the semifinals, Roper scored all six Eagles goals in a wild first period that saw the atoms leading Semiahmoo, 6-5. Both teams settled down from that point, and goals by Bono, Kai Verbrugge and Daunte McKinney allowed the Eagles to pull out a 9-7 win and a date in the final.
"You don't often see these kinds of results this early in the season," assistant coach Jason Roper said.
The Eagles opened tournament play with wins of 7-1 over the Comox Valley Chiefs and 6-1 over Cowichan Valley. Bono had two goals and three assists to lead the way over Comox, with Cole Klughart, Evan Manke, David Hurley and Verbrugge adding scores. Bono (4) and Roper (2) accounted for all the scoring against Cowichan.
The championship game required a big comeback by the atoms after they gave up two shorthanded goals while skating on an early power play. Matthew Datos and McKinney punched home goals later in the first to tie it and, after Kerry Park jumped back ahead 3-2, Bono knotted the score again off assists from Roper and Manke. Ethan Fuller's rebound goal gave the North Islanders their first lead at 4-3, but Kerry Park tied it again to set up Bono's game-winner off a David Klatt assist.