Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by John Tonin

BURYING THE REBOUND — Christ the King forward (12) shoots the puck past École Whitehorse Elementary School goalie (middle) during the Yukon Elementary School Hockey Tournament Wednesday at the Canada Games Centre.

Christ the King wins hockey gold

The annual Yukon Elementary School Hockey Tournament was held at the Canada Games Centre yesterday.

By John Tonin on November 29, 2018

The annual Yukon Elementary School Hockey Tournament was held at the Canada Games Centre yesterday. The tournament is a one -day event and is the only hockey tournament the schools will participate in.

“For ice hockey, it’s just a one-day event for the schools,” said Christ the King Elementary School head coach Ron Billingsley. “We had a good bunch of kids from Grades 5-7, all good friends, they all play on different teams throughout the year, so it’s nice to get them together to play for their school the one time of year.”

The round-robin games were 15 minutes long. The gold and bronze medal games were 30 minutes long, without stop-time. This meant the coaches had to take a different approach in their game messages.

“They are quick games, they are really fast games,” said Billingsley. “It makes it a unique style of tournament. Every minute is important.”

Christ the King defeated École Whitehorse Elementary School (WES) 6-1 in the gold medal game.

Christ the King jumped on WES early into the 30-minute frame. Their first goal came when their forward carried the puck over the blue line on the right side of the ice and let a wrist shot go from the top of the circle which found the top corner of the net.

They pushed their lead to two when their forward made a great individual effort to split the defence and to skate in alone on the WES goalie. The goalie made the first save but could not save the rebound.

Christ the King controlled the offensive zone and scored in a variety of ways to push their lead to 5-0.

Not only were they playing sound offensively, but goalie Kieran Mooney said the team did a great job defensively in front of the net.

“My team played really good in front of me,” said Mooney. “The defence was blocking a lot of shots for me.”

With Mooney riding a shutout with less than 10 minutes remaining, Christ the King took a penalty to give WES a power play.

WES was able to capitalize on their man advantage when their defenceman pinched down the boards and cut to the net, squeaking the puck just over the goal-line. Mooney says he was pushing for the shutout.

“I really wanted to get the shutout,” said Mooney. “But it feels really good to win gold.”

Christ the King went undefeated throughout the tournament and Billingsley says the final was probably their best-played game.

“The team played really well, as a team, together and having a blast all day,” said Billingsley. “When kids are having fun they play well together. They were really excited for the gold medal game, and they played extremely well. I think the best game that they played was in the final.

“The message before the game remained the same as the entire tournament. It’s a day off school, go have fun and enjoy each other.”

École Whitehorse Elementary School not only is bringing silver back to their school but also bronze. Their second team in the tournament took the third place game 5-0.

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