The Quesnel midget Thunder came just short of medalling in the provincials last weekend.
"It was a very good outcome for the year," Peter Andrews, team coach said.
The Thunder started the season only tentatively a team, with only ten skaters and a goalie that had only played for one year.
"When I started the year, we didn't even know if we had a team," Andrews said.
Despite a tenuous beginning the team grew and improved to challenge provincial level competition.
The team was able to handle all but the South Okanagan team in the round robin, taking their other four games with at least a three goal lead, including their last round-robin game against Kerry Park, to whom they would lose third place to in the finals.
When they hit Kelowna in the semi-finals, who would go on to win the tournament, the tired Thunder stumbled.
"It was the second game that day and the guys just got tired," Andrews said.
Quesnel had just finished beating Kerry Park in the morning and only made it through two periods before hitting a wall. Going into the final period Quesnel was only down by one. Then hit
a wall of exhaustion in the third and allowed Kelowna four unanswered goals.
Their final game against Kerry Park for third was close right up until the end, with the Thunder down 2-1 until the end when they pulled their goalie to try to tie it up but Kerry Park managed a shot on the empty net, which nailed the game shut at 3-1.
Despite the hard loss Andrew was proud of his team.
"They played their best."