Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Dan Davidson

UNLUCKY BREAK – Dawson City’s Tatra Ventures team (in black) dropped their semifinal contest to Fort McPherson’s LJ’s Sabres 4-1 after losing star forward Steve Laszlo to a broken wrist at the Dawson City Rec Hockey Tournament.

Sports in brief: Aklavik dominates Dawson tourney

DAWSON CITY – The Aklavik Kings won the Dawson City Rec Hockey Tournament in a blowout, Sunday.

By Whitehorse Star on February 4, 2016

DAWSON CITY – The Aklavik Kings won the Dawson City Rec Hockey Tournament in a blowout, Sunday.

In an all-Northwest Territories final, Aklavik downed Fort McPherson-based LJ’s Sabres 9-2 to earn victory in the seven-team tournament.

The win capped a solid weekend for the Kings, who won all of their games by more than five goals.

The two Outside teams were challenged by Murphy Built and Yukon Brewing from Whitehorse, the DC Killer B’s and Tatra Ventures out of Dawson City, and Pelly Crossing’s Selkirk Bears.

Tatra lost a heartbreaker to the Sabres in the semifinal by a score of 4-1. They also lost star forward Steve Laszlo to a broken wrist.

Attendance at the games was pretty good as long as the Dawson teams were still in the running.

Fortunately for the tournament, the temperature dropped 10 to 15 degrees later in the week.

Earlier, all arena recreational activities were cancelled in order to preserve the natural ice for the weekend, with temperatures in single minus digits most of the week.

“Dawson City Hockey Association wishes to thank the City of Dawson, the Klondike Visitors Association, Aloha Catering, and all the volunteers, referees, fans and players who made the effort to make this tournament possible,” said organizer Paul Robitaille.

The 2017 tournament is scheduled for Jan. 27 to 29.

– Report by Dan Davidson

Murphy wins tight race for Golden Boot

Yukon Brewing claimed the league title with a 3-1 win over Quest Computers in old-timer soccer action last Saturday.

The Brew’s win came courtesy of goals from Andy Todd, Nathan Bingham and Jim Brown, with Ben Mercier getting a goal back for Quest.

The score would have been much greater if it wasn’t for Thomas Riexinger in the Quest net, as he pulled off a string of world-class saves to frustrate the Brew’s forward line.

The foundations of Yukon Brewing’s championship season were built upon a measly defence, a hard-working midfield and a great team spirit.

The late game was a hard-fought contest, with Klondike Business Solutions (KBS) coming out 6-3 winners over Pepsi.

Danny Macdonald and Adil Khalik each scored a pair, while Grant Zazula and Kurt Bringsli also scored for KBS, with Chris Stacey, Doug Hitch and Eric Murphy scoring for Pepsi.

Although Pepsi lost, the silver lining was that Murphy secured his first Golden Boot award finishing ahead of Macdonald and Khalik with 21 goals.

This is a remarkable effort from the tall Irishman as he effectively has only one good leg and poor eyesight.

The teams meet again this week in the first leg of the playoffs where the intensity gets ratcheted up a notch and hopes and dream are realized or crushed over the space of 50 minutes.

– Report courtesy of Andy Todd

Re-route planned for Yukon Quest 300

Due to jumble ice sections between Circle, Alaska, and the turnaround point which is around 65 kilometres upriver, the Yukon Quest 300 has been re-routed.

The mid-distance race mushers will race back to Central from Circle, instead of continuing up the Yukon River as originally planned.

The organization has determined travelling over these jumble sections twice is not in the best interest of the dogs or the mushers.

The overall mileage remains essentially the same, according to a press release from the Quest office.

The race, which begins Saturday, is a sister event to the Yukon Quest 1,000 International Sled Dog Race, and follows the same trail.

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