Throughout Whitehorse, hockey equipment is being whisked into storage after the minor hockey season wrapped up over the weekend.
Duncan’s Ltd. Captured the bantam title in the playoff in an unbalanced 6-1 win over Castlerock in the finals.
“I think the guys are happy because we just played a tournament in Teslin and we lost to EBA (Engineering) in the final and so the kids were quite bummed out about that,” said Duncan’s Ltd. coach John Pereira. “So they were happy to win the gold in this tournament.”
Castlerock’s lone goal came midway through the third, scored by Wyatt Gale to move to 5-1. Scoring for Duncan’s were Blake Roy, Ben Pereira, Brandon Langenham, Riley Pettitt, Elliot Berg and defenceman Scott Peterson.
“Whenever the other team got a breakaway, he’d always catch up with them,” said Pereira of Peterson. “He’s so fast, he’s like money in the bank.”
Duncan’s went 3-2 over Northwestel in the semis after being down 2-1, with Ben Pereira scoring the game winner.
Northwestel went on to win the bronze with a 7-4 win over EBA Engineering.
Rowan Huggard produced two goals and two assists for Northwestel while teammate Greg Berube scored a pair of goals.
EBA’s Tyler Wiens had two goals and an assist and Michael Skookum contributed three assists.
Yukon Appliance unplugs competition in atoms
A team’s captain may be responsible for providing solid leadership, but it doesn’t hurt to score a few goals along the way.
Yukon Appliance won their division with a 5-3 win over Cinderwood in the atom finals. Appliance’s captain Jesse McCuaig led the way with four goals.
“He’s a real strong player,” said Appliance coach Mike Cozens. “He’s got good attitude, provides good leadership, and tries all the time. It’s his first year playing here in Whitehorse because he’s from Haines Junction.”
After one period of play, Cinderwood was ahead with a 1-0 lead. However, in the second, after McCuaig’s first, teammate Jamie Limoges scored to go up by one.
“I knew, going into this game, that we were going to have a tough game with these guys,” said Cozens. “We played these guys in the Dawson tournament, had a 3-3 tie and a tough game against them. So even when we had a three-goal lead on these guys that didn’t mean anything because they are a good team that’s well coached and they never give up.
“I wasn’t comfortable until there was less than 20 seconds left.”
In net for Appliance in the finals was Joshua Tetlichi, a player who brings versatility to a new level by also playing forward and defence in other games.
“Most of the time, he plays out for us but he plays goal for us sometimes—he wanted to play in the final,” said Cozens. “He’s a goalie for the Wolverines, the (First Nations) atom traveling team. He’s an extremely good forward, an extremely good defenceman and an exceptional goalie.”
Yukon Appliance defeated Klondike Motors to get to the finals. Klondike Motors went on to win bronze with a 5-3 win over Gem Gas after trailing 2-0 early in the game.
Wild times in tykes division
Burning the Flames with a 7-2 win, the Wild won the tykes division Sunday at Takhini Arena.
Wild’s Stanley Cooley set his team on the right track early on, scoring a hat trick in just the first five minutes of play.
“He’s such a good skater; he can skate circles around all these kids,” said Wild coach Ted Hupe. “Cooley dominated the league, he’s one of a few players that can lob the ball in the top-shelf.”
Since there is little or no emphasis placed on scoring in the tykes’ age division, goal scorers were not recorded.
Still, Hupe had plenty to say about all his players.
“Evan Arrell’s skills clicked at the end of this tournament and my son (Aiden Hupe), his line finally clicked,” said Hupe. “We have two very strong players, Stanley Cooley and Sasha Jirousek, they’ve been very strong all season.
“Eric Potvin, he probably developed most over the year. It was his first year of hockey, not skating strongly—not a lot of hockey sense in the beginning, but he caught on very quickly.”
The Canucks defeated the Penguins 8-7 in the bronze game to take third. The Penguins lost 7-1 to the Wild in the semis.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com