BCEHL U15 September Showcase Recap

Written By K.P. Wee

The U15 Canadians opened the 2023-24 regular season playing in a BCEHL U15 AAA showcase weekend that ran from Friday to Sunday, with all games taking place at the Canlan Ice Sports Langley Twin Rinks. 

On Friday, the Canadians fell 5-3 against the Valley West Giants despite getting goals from William Trolland, Princeton Vuong, and Jayden Rodas. After the Giants opened the scoring five minutes into the contest, Trolland evened the score at 1-1 with 5:17 left in the first period. Vuong then gave the Canadians the lead with only 21 seconds remaining in the frame, with Trolland picking up the lone assist. Unfortunately, the lead was shortlived, as the Giants struck for four goals in the second period for a commanding 5-2 lead. The Canadians, though, didn’t give up, with Rodas scoring with 3:29 left in the third period to pull GVC within 5-3. In the loss, Trolland finished with a goal and two assists. 

On Saturday, GVC fell 6-5 to the Thompson Blazers after taking a 4-2 lead into the third period. Nicholas Harris scored two power-play goals for the Canadians, and Henry Goldman, Jake Gustafson, and Jayden Rodas also tallied for GVC. However, the Blazers used a four-goal third period to take a 6-4 lead, before Harris scored his second goal of the game with 48 seconds left to round out the scoring. 

On Sunday, the Canadians played a pair of games to close out the showcase weekend, and GVC finally got into the win column, defeating the Cariboo Cougars 5-2 in the morning. Henry Goldman, Maxwell Clemens, and Jayden Rodas scored the first three goals of the game to give the Canadians a commanding 3-0 lead. Although the Cougars then scored the next two goals to close the gap to within 3-2, that was as close as Cariboo got as William Trolland’s power-play goal with 1:04 left in regulation made it 4-2, and Magnus Balakrishnan closed out the scoring with 36 seconds remaining for the 5-2 final. Goaltender Joshua Read picked up the win for the Canadians.

Playing with a short bench after losing four players to injury throughout the weekend, the tired but resilient Canadians dropped the evening game on Sunday, as the Vancouver North East Chiefs rallied for three goals in the third to edge GVC 4-2. Evan Borisoff opened the scoring with 5:56 left in the second period with a power-play marker, but the Chiefs then scored the next two goals to take a 2-1 advantage. Henry Goldman tied things up at 2-2 with 12:44 remaining in regulation and looked GVC poised to pick up at least one point in the standings. Alas, the Chiefs took the lead 3-2 with 2:09 left and then added an empty-netter with 33 seconds remaining for the 4-2 victory. William Trolland had two assists for GVC.

Through four games, William Trolland leads the Canadians with five assists and seven points, while both Jayden Rodas and Henry Goldman have three goals and six points. 

The Canadians (1-3-0-0), who are currently eighth in the nine-team division, will look to bounce back this weekend (Sept. 30 and Oct. 1) at the Richmond Olympic Oval against the U15 AAA Okanagan Rockets (3-1-0-2). Saturday’s game is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. while Sunday’s contest will be at 11:15 a.m. Both games can be seen on playfullscreen.com.