SUNDRE – The U15 Huskies, who remain undefeated in regular Central Alberta Hockey League play, gained some valuable experience at their home tournament fundraiser last weekend facing off against a higher-ranked team that went onto win gold.
The Sundre Huskies’ Showdown brought seven visiting teams to the Sundre Arena for games that started on Friday, Dec. 8 and wrapped up on Sunday, Dec. 10.
The hosting Huskies welcomed the Westlock Warriors, the Kainai Chiefs, the Blindman Valley Broncos, Redcliff Grizzlies, Coaldale Cobras, Wetaskiwin Kings, and the Cochrane Rockies.
“The weekend was good,” said coach Austin Fyten on Monday morning when contacted for comment.
“Friday night was the only game we lost,” said Fyten about the opening game against the Broncos, a tier 2 team that went on to win 6-2 and ultimately took the gold medal title.
“The way that the tournaments work, you submit everything before the teams get tiered. So, they had already been invited and we didn’t want to lose out on having them come,” he said.
“They were a strong team; we gave a good effort against them, but yeah. Came up short,” he said, agreeing that it was nevertheless a valuable experience for the Huskies to go up against a higher-ranked squad.
“Absolutely, yeah. It was a good challenge for us,” he said.
On Saturday, the Huskies played against Kainai, who the local team defeated 6-1.
“Kainai opted out of the tournament after that game,” the coach said.
“They decided they didn’t want to come back for the final game,” he said.
That would have left Westlock without a team to go up against on Sunday morning, so the Huskies stepped up to fill in and play that game at 8 a.m., followed later by the bronze final match against Wetaskiwin at 12:30 p.m., he said.
The Huskies defeated the Warriors 6-3 in the D final, and were back on the ice a couple of hours later when they once again managed to clinch another victory in the bronze final against the Kings with a final score of 3-2 that was determined in overtime.
“It was a busy day and the boys did well,” the coach said.
The tournament is an unofficial annual event hosted by the team as a fundraiser, and does not count toward standings in CAHL.
Generally speaking, throughout the weekend there was some good competition, he said.
“Redcliffe had a good team, Coaldale was competitive; I think overall, there was some close games and some good games for sure,” he said.
“Everybody had fun I think, and everything went well.”
Fyten was also grateful to both local and visiting hockey fans who came out to cheer on their favourite teams and players.
“We got quite a few (fans) to all our games. That final game on Sunday was really good,” he said. “There was lots of people there and lots of support, so the boys were excited about that.”
The U15s will resume regular league play on the road this Sunday in Standard.