TRENTON – The Pictou County Bantam AA Crushers walked away silver as hosts of provincials yesterday at the Trenton rink.
The Crushers went 4-0 through the round-robin portion of the tournament, even beating eventual tournament winners, the West Hants Warriors, but fell 5-0 in the final game.
“They worked hard and stuck to the game plan,” said coach Barry Hayman.
“There’s nothing wrong with being second place in the province. The hockey gods just weren’t with us today.”
Tournament play was close all weekend, Hayman said.
“This weekend was exactly what I thought it was going to be. I thought everyone was pretty even going in. We beat (West Hants) earlier in the tournament 3-1, they came back to beat us here. We were 2-0 against Dartmouth and 2-1 against Port Hawkesbury – and they didn’t go down without a fight,” he said. “It was an equal competition.”
The Bantams finish their season with a record of 36-12-15. Hayman credited the players and parents for the successful year.
“The entire season. I’ve never coached a better group of kids, and a better group of parents. It was wonderful,” he said.
