For Brad Morrison, it was a true hockey highlight.
Last weekend in Calgary, the 15-year-old Prince George resident helped Team B.C. to a gold medal at the Under-16 Western Canada Challenge Cup. In the championship game, B.C. pounded host Alberta 9-3 and Morrison was a big part of the victory. In the contest, he scored twice and added an assist.
He's now back at home with his regular club, the Cariboo Cougars. When he showed up for a Thursday practice at the Kin Centre, he had his golden souvenir from the Challenge Cup with him.
"It was lots of fun -- pretty exciting to win gold with all the guys from B.C.," Morrison said. "I've had a couple of good opportunities in my life in hockey and going to that tournament and winning it is the topping."
B.C. was a first-time champion at the four-team event.
Morrison and his mates started off with a 4-3 shootout victory against Alberta, a game in which they trailed 3-0 in the third period. Morrison scored the goal that started them on the comeback trail.
Next, B.C. beat Saskatchewan 4-1 and then topped Manitoba 5-2. That set up the rematch with Alberta and, this time, it was no contest.
"We just worked better as a team," Morrison said. "We expected Alberta was going to be good so we didn't underestimate them like we did the first game."
Prince George's Trevor Sprague was a Team B.C. assistant coach for the Challenge Cup. Sprague said the speed with which the players adopted the 'team' concept was key.
"The talent that we had, for everything to come together in the last game to beat them 9-3 was unbelievable," he said. "Everybody bought in and everybody moved forward and that's probably the hardest thing to do with a team that has that much talent on it -- to make sure that everybody is going in the right direction."
Morrison is a top prospect of the Western Hockey League's Prince George Cougars, who chose him in the first round, seventh overall, in the 2012 bantam draft.
Another Cats' first-rounder from 2012, Jansen Harkins, came up huge in the championship game of the Challenge Cup. Harkins, a North Vancouver product who was picked second overall by the Cougars, burned Alberta for three goals and two assists.
