Whitehorse Dental drilled the competition in novice and Titan Gaming were titans of the atom division at the Whitehorse Minor Hockey Championships on Sunday at the Canada Games Centre.
“We are all very excited for the kids. They practiced hard all year and were committed to getting better everyday,” said Dental head coach Tim Hogan in an email to the News.
“We are very proud of them for keeping a positive attitude in the games we were losing and working through that adversity to play hard all weekend.”
Whitehorse Dental had to fight to reach the novice final, but when they got there they ran away with it, beating Kilrich Builders 7-0.
Rowin Lang had a four-point game with a hat trick, and Noah Kinney had a goal and assist. Axel Anderson, Casey Tisiga and Owen Hogan also scored.
Dental goalie Ray Stalder kept the net clean for his second shutout of the championship.
“Rowan Lang had a great game. Thayer Battersby and Alex Kiriak kept our team in every game with their amazing defence,” said Tim. “Noah Kinney and Owen Hogan did a great job bringing the puck out of our end to get shots on net and set the rest of the team up to get goals on rebounds. Aiden Lund-Rayner was always in the right spot to get shots on net. Casey Tisiga and Axel Anderson got early goals to jump start the team in the final game.
“Everyone on the team played as hard as they could all weekend and contributed when they had the chance.”
As lopsided as the score of the final was, Whitehorse Dental barely made it past the semifinal. After going 2-2 in the round robin, Dental squeaked by Envirolube in a 2-1 overtime win with Aiden Lund-Rayner scoring the game-winner.
“All of the teams in the novice division were pretty even and they all spent the season taking turns winning some games,” said Tim.
Booster Juice took third in a 3-1 win over Envirolube with a pair of goals from Drake Cooper. Canadian Tire placed fifth.
With only a few losses to blemish their season record, Titan Gaming dominated the league. But things didn’t look all too promising early on in last week’s championship.
Titan suffered a 3-2 loss to PNW Group in round robin play before meeting them again in the atom final.
“Our kids were pretty dejected after that game, but we had a good talk in the dressing room and got their spirits back up,” said Titan head coach Adam Labar.
Titan Gaming claimed the atom title with a 6 - 3 win over PNW.
Scoring machines Sebastin Insley and Conner Labar led the team in the final. Insley registered a natural hat trick, capped with the game-winning goal. Conner assisted the game-winner and added his team’s last two goals of the season. Kurtis Hyatt also scored.
“Everyone in the dressing room, including the parents, were ecstatic,” said Adam.
“Our approach all year was about being a team ... Every player on my team from day one was held accountable. They all learned real fast and committed to playing for each other.
“I had a lot of players playing for five or six years and I had a lot of first-year players, so I had a really mixed group of kids to work with, which proved to be challenging at first. But by the end of the year I had a team committed to playing with each other, for each other, playing as a team.”
Skookum Asphault grabbed bronze with a 6-2 win over fourth place’s Coldwell Banker. Alex Braun had three goals and Jaxon Tentrees two. Regan Parry added a goal and assist.
Whitehorse Beverages finished in fifth place.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com