The Quesnel Thunder development peewee team met all of their goals at their home tournament this weekend, despite finishing with a record of one win and four losses.
Prior to the tournament, coach Hazel Massier asked each player to write down a goal for the tournament.
With few exceptions the players wrote, “Don’t give up,” or “Work hard.”
To a player, Massier said, they followed through.
Nowhere was the team goal more evident than Saturday afternoon when the Quesnel peewee team skated to a 6-2 loss, their third loss of the tournament, against a team from Vanderhoof.
Despite the loss, the spirits were high in the dressing room and Massier was pleased with the overall tone of the game.
“They did really well,” Massier said.
“They played hard and they never gave up.”
Quesnel assistant coach Jesse Laird agreed.
“It was a good game, we battled hard the whole time,” he said.
A perfect example, Massier said, was Quesnel’s second goal of the game, scored by Katie Young with an assist from Keaton Ortner, with just seconds left on the clock.
More often than not, teams trailing 6-1 with the clock winding down will just go through the motions, but not this time.
“That just shows a lot of heart and effort,” Massier said.
Quesnel doesn’t have a regular peewee developmental team and so for most of the players on the team, the weekend’s tournament was a rare opportunity to play as a team.
“Getting them to come together and play together as a team in such a short term is tough,” Massier said.
That, Massier said, was a distinct disadvantage for her players who faced teams that had been playing together the entire season.
Another important adjustment the Quesnel team had to make was the use of bodychecks as they were not used to dishing them out or receiving them.
Saturday afternoon it was evident the Vanderhoof team was accustomed to bodychecking.
“It just takes time to get used to it [bodychecking],” Massier said.
Despite the six goals, most of which were unlucky bounces off skates or a teammate’s stick, netminder Reign Turley was named MVP of the game for Quesnel.
