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Novice Huskies score hardware at Kelowna tourney

The Novice Huskies brought the heat and blasted some teams at the Kelowna Heat Blast Tournament over the weekend in B.C.

The Novice Huskies brought the heat and blasted some teams at the Kelowna Heat Blast Tournament over the weekend in B.C.

The Whitehorse selects squad went 3-2 at the tournament in the 2006 age group to win gold in the silver bracket - and placed third overall - to end the season on Sunday.

“The tournament went really well,” said Huskies coach Derek Johnstone. “From how we prepared this year, how we practiced, games we played in this year, we had several compliments on how hard our team played and how much they improved from last year.”

The Huskies won the silver bracket with a 10-1 thumping of the Quesnel Red Dragons on Sunday.

Whitehorse’s Chayce Tuton led the way with four assists and a goal in the final. Teammate Gavin McKenna racked up two goals and an assist; Jase Johnstone had two goals; and Taylor Bierlmeier posted a goal and assist.

Conner Labar, Jaxon Tentrees, Zander Underhill and Tyson Matthews each added individual goals while Landon Cowper helped out with an assist.

It was the second medal won by the Huskies - a selects team made up of the top players from the Whitehorse rec league - this season.

“Last year we didn’t really have a chance to play together as a team, practice as we did all year this year, so all our practices and tournaments paid off in a huge way for the kids this year,” said Derek.

“We started our Huskies this year to be more of a team. That was the whole idea behind this thing, was getting back to this tournament this year and I think it paid off, for sure.”

The Huskies opened the tournament with an 11-3 win over the Okanagan All Stars.

Goalie Nigel Charlie then notched a shutout in a 15-0 thwacking of the Quesnel Red Dragons.

The Whitehorse squad dropped their next two. They lost 8-5 to the Chilliwack Jr. Chiefs and 4-3 to the Kelowna Red Heat, with the home team scoring a goal late in the game.

“It was a close game, we just never had the bounces when it came down to it,” said Derek.

“We came such a long way from last year and the coaches are so proud of the kids,” he added.

The Huskies were also coached by Justin Halowaty and player Kaelen Halowaty, who was out with a leg injury but put on his jersey and helped coach on the bench while still on crutches.

The Whitehorse team won three games en route to silver at the Fire in my Heart, Ice in my Veins Tournament in Enderby in early February.

They also went 3-5 against the Yellowknife Wolfpack rep team in a pair of series this season.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com