The Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey Association is hosting the BC Hockey Juvenile Championship this weekend at Cam Neely Arena, and the hometown team is in the hunt.
The Ridge Meadows Rustlers, who had a strong regular season with a 18-9-3 record, started the tournament on Thursday morning with a convincing 7-2 win over Chilliwack. Later that day, they followed the win up with a 3-3 tie against a tough Richmond team.
Friday night the Rustlers suffered their first loss of the tournament by a score of 4-2. The defeat came against a North Vancouver team that is heavily favoured to play in the championship game, topped the league standings, and with that win had gone 3-0.
The tournament is a six-team event, and the format will see each team play all the others in a full round-robin, for five games each. The top two teams advance to a championship game on Sunday night at 8:30 p.m.
The Rustlers have the toughest part of their schedule behind them, and a record of 1-1-1. Their next game will be on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. against Surrey, and another is on the slate for Sunday at 1:30 p.m. against Juan de Fuca. Both teams lost their first two games of the tournament.
All games are being played at Cam Neely Arena, as another highlight in the 50th anniversary season of Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey.