There were plenty of firsts at this year's Elementary Schools of Whitehorse Invitational Hockey Tournament. However, the biggest highlight came in the gold medal game between Whitehorse Elementary and Hidden Valley/Ecole Emilie Tremblay.

Hidden Valley/E.E.T. went on to win in thrilling fashion, thanks to a Patrick Roy-like performance from netminder Joe Wallingham and a late goal scored by Dominic Korn with more than 10 minutes remaining on the clock. The final score was 2-1.

What made the victory even more meaningful was the fact that it marked the first-time either school has won any type of hockey championship. The victory for E.E.T. helped the school earn its first championship banner.

"I think it's pretty neat," said E.E.T. coach Daniel Girouard. "The kids are excited and I think it will bring a lot of good spirits at school. Hopefully we will get more kids involved next year."

All of the tournament's games, with the exception of the gold and bronze medal contests, featured one 14-minute period. The finals, however, included two 14-minute periods, with a small break in between.

This was the third year in row the tournament has been held. The Canada Games Centre hosted the event, which ran all day on Wednesday.

This year featured the largest number of teams, including all of the elementary schools in Whitehorse as well as squads from Teslin and Carmacks.

Both communities participated for the first time. Schools also had the option of combining if one didn't have enough players.

It was open to both girls and boys, but the recommendation was for participating students to be at least in Grade 4.

However, there were a few exceptions and because the hockey event was more participation-based, it allowed for some Grade 3 students to be included as well.

There was roughly a 120 elementary students at the tournament.

Christ the King went on to win the bronze medal, thanks to a buzzer-beating goal with three seconds left in the contest. The final score was 5-4.

In the gold medal final, E.E.T.'s Ryan Chippet was in the right place at the right time to put his team ahead by a goal early on in the contest.

Players on Whitehorse Elementary didn't get down about trailing by one and not even a couple of minutes later, the team evened it up at 1-1.

The goal was put in by Henry Beairsto, who after receiving a cross-ice pass, didn't waste any time sending the puck into the back of the net. Wallingham nearly stopped the shot, but was only able to get a portion of his glove on it.

The goal provided a lift to Whitehorse Elementary's offense, which kept the pressure up in Hidden Valley/E.E.T.'s zone, forcing Wallingham to make a number of difficult saves.

Wallingham, 12, was up to the challenge and thanks to a quick glove hand helped his team get out of the period without giving up any more additional goals.

The second period featured just as much end-to-end action with both goalies putting on a show. Korn, who attends Hidden Valley school, solved what was nearly a 15 minute scoring drought. Korn beat Whitehorse Elementary goalie Felix Russell on a rush that ended with him firing a low shot through Russell's five-hole.

Hidden Valley/E.E.T. managed to hang-on and this time around didn't relinquish the lead.

"I just tried my hardest and tried my heart out and hoped for the win," said Wallingham, who stopped at least seven shots in the win. "It means a lot to me, I always like to win gold. It's awesome."

Peter Harms, the coach for Hidden Valley, said two recent additions at the school in Wallinham and Korn really helped them win the tournament.

"At the beginning of this year I got a new kid, his name's Joe Wallingham, he's a spectacular goalie with very fast hands," he said. "So to pick up some kid from Dawson is awesome and then it wasn't two days ago, they phoned up and said you have a new kid coming and this new kid is not a good athlete, he's a spectacular athlete and for the first time in all my years in either floor hockey or ice hockey, we took gold."

Last year, Harms' team finished second at the ice hockey tournament.

"You always win for gold, you lose to get silver and we have Canadian kids here, so it was a loss, the concept of a silver medal," he said. "We didn't get gold was the overall feeling."

He said the teams attention to defence was what helped them come in first.

Elementary school principals Ted Hupe, along with Pat Berrel, organized the tournament. Hupe said he was pleased with how it went this year.

"We had probably 120 players here today, no problems, no discipline issues. Kids were interested in playing, kids were happy to be here. It's one of those things where a bad day of hockey is still a better day than a good day at school," he joked.

Hupe said that a tournament like this isn't possible without the help from the coaches, parents and teachers.

"It's Pat Berrel and I organizing, but without the help of all of the school coaches and parents we couldn't pull it off."