The North Island’s 11th annual Wild Hockey Tournament was held Nov. 8-12 at the Don Cruickshank Memorial Arena in Port Hardy, with nonstop games going on around the clock.
The tournament featured four women’s teams and six men’s teams battling it out to see who would make it to the finals in each division.
In the women’s division, it was the hometown Wild and the Courtenay Whalers who had collected enough points to qualify for the women’s final on Sunday afternoon.
The game between the Wild and the Whalers was a hard-fought battle right from the first whistle, with both teams fighting for control of the puck, but it was the Whalers’ Jess Sekwlich who ended up scoring off a beautiful deek in the second period, flicking the puck top shelf past the Wild’s goalie Avary Miller to give her team a 1-0 lead.
The Wild had their moments to tie the game up but ultimately couldn’t capitalize on their offensive chances, and the Whalers managed to hold on till the final buzzer, clinching the victory 1-0.
The men’s final came down to a battle between the Warriors and the Flyers, and the game definitely didn’t disappoint the large crowd of spectators who came out to watch some fast-paced hockey action.
The Warriors got out to a 1-0 lead in the first period, but the Flyers ended up tying the game with a goal of their own at 6:89.
The Warriors answered back thanks to a goal from Brett Demoe at 3:56, and then they added another goal with less than 10 seconds left to make it 3-1 going into the second period.
The second period saw the Flyers tie the game back up 3-3 with two big goals, but the Warriors dug down deep and managed to score more four goals before the end of the period to take home a very close 7-5 win.
