It was a day away from the classroom for elementary students across Whitehorse and from the communities as they played in the annual Yukon Elementary School Hockey Tournament at the Canada Games Centre on Wednesday.

For ice hockey, it is just a one-day event for the schools and it runs non-stop until the gold medal game. Round-robin games were 15 minutes long without stop-time. The bronze and gold medal games had 30 minutes on the clock.

The tournament had 11 teams participating, all getting to represent their school colours, including a new team from Dawson City.

“We had Dawson coming down for the first time ever,” said organizer from Holy Family Elementary School Vanessa Stitt. “Teslin came in as well, as usual. I was excited to have another community down. We are still hoping to get a Haines Junction team or another one in. That’s our goal.”

Stitt said she was impressed by the play of all the teams.

“It was good, the kids were excited and there were a lot of close games,” said Stitt. “The kids were pumped about that. Some teams were only losing by one goal so it was really tight games.”

It was the 17th year the Yukon Elementary School Hockey Tournament has been held and Stitt said it continues to grow. As well, students who used to play are looking to get involved in other ways like refereeing.

After a long day of games, the championship came down to a match between Jack Hulland Elementary School and Elijah Smith.

Both schools got to play in front of a large crowd as the eliminated players and their families stuck about to watch the championship game.

Jack Hulland got on the scoreboard early and often scoring in a number of ways. They scored on several breakaways where the players displayed some dazzling stick handling.

As well they were able to control the puck in the offensive zone and get the cycle game going. With some nifty passes, they would get the puck out to a waiting forward in the slot who made no mistake burying it.

The Elijah Smith goaltender, who was by far the busier goalie, kept their team in the game with some spectacular saves. They were able to stretch the pads out and stop some breakaway chances and as well flash the glove on some of those shots from the slot.

Elijah Smith only scored once but it was a beauty. Using crisp passes they entered the offensive zone before executing a tic-tac-toe passing play with nothing but a wide-open cage for the goalscorer to shoot into.

The ice was certainly tilted in Jack Hulland’s favour and they did not relinquish any momentum as they were able to take the gold medal.

It was a close bronze medal game and it was Ecole Whitehorse Elementary School 1 who were able to come out on top.

For the fifth year in a row, Teslin was given the sportsmanship award. To go with their silver medal, Elijah Smith also received the cleanest locker room honours.

Stitt said the success of the tournament would not be possible without the support of Canada Games Centre Booster Juice and owner Glenna Shephard who covers the ice-time, banners, medals and refs.

The tournament was started by Ted Hupe, principal of Holy Family, with individual schools challenging other schools to play during recreational time. Then he decided to make it a day event with all schools able to compete.