The Northern Avalanche Girls Hockey Team have been having a great second season, and with a tournament in Richmond coming up this weekend, it could get even better.

The team will be returning to the Richmond Ice Classic, where they won two games just two years ago as atoms.

This year the girls will be skating as bantam, and head coach Louis Bouchard is hoping they can turn those two games into a silver or gold medal.

In the past two seasons, the girls have gone from first-time skaters to goal-scoring queens, Bouchard said.

"They used to get whooped 16-0 he said.

Now, playing against the same pee wee boys teams that used to squash them last year, the girls are holding their own.

In February the girls were in Teslin for the Yukon pee Wee Championships, where they came away with gold.

"They're been doing really good,” Bouchard said. The coach has been working with the girls team for several years now.

The Richmond tournament will be the second of the year, after the one in Teslin, and Bouchard has a lofty, but possibly not far off goal.

"The goal is to be in the gold medal game,” he said.

The coach isn't concerned what colour the medal is, but hope they get some hardware to bring back to Yukon.

"Once we get into that game anything could happen,” he said. "We'll come back with a medal. Hopefully gold or silver.”

The team is made up of 10 hockey-loving girls who train hard every weekend. Two of the girls are from the communities. One commutes from Teslin, and the other from Haines Junction to get on the ice.

"These girls are serious about their hockey,” Bouchard said.

Their next practice will be after the tournament, on April 2, but the season is beginning to wind down for the girls.

"Our season's almost over,” Bouchard said.

After the ice classic, the girls will play in the Whitehorse Minor Hockey year-end tournament.

The 2010/2011 season is shaping up to be a bit different than the girls have been playing.

With the Canada Winter Games being held, the Avalanche team will be taking a different form.

The team will still play under the Northern Avalanche name, so they can participate in tournaments, but the girls will instead be heading for the Canada Games as Team Yukon when the time comes.

In April, Bouchard and fellow coach Kelly Eby will hold an ID camp to choose members of the team.

The girls will be given a fitness plan to follow over the summer to make sure they are in good shape to hit the ice once the season starts up again, and to give them an even better chance of winning at the Games.

The girls from Whitehorse will be training with coaches in town throughout the summer as well.

This means that there will be no all-girls team except for the Canada Games team, but the girls will still get to hit the ice to play their sport.

Bouchard said the impact the team leaves on the girls is huge. His daughter played for the Canada Games team a few years ago, and is still involved with developing female hockey in the Yukon as a coach. He says that many girls that play on the team go on to continue hockey as mentors and coaches for other girls.

"Most of these girls learn how to set a goal and work at it,” he said.

The lessons they learn move off the ice too, Bouchard said.

"It's just a game but in the end they're learning life skills that they can use for the rest of their life.”

This year's Richmond Ice Classic will be the largest ever, with 72 teams participating. Approximately 1,100 players will be at the tournament.