The Gwich'in Gladiators were simply unstoppable.

There's really no other way to say it.

The Gladiators went undefeated in the Youth Division of the 34th Annual Yukon

Native Hockey Touarnament over the weekend, capped by a 9-1 win over the Champagne and Aishihik Junior Storm in the final at Takhini Arena yesterday afternoon.

Not only did the Gladiators win all of their four games – they won each by the eight-goal mercy rule.

"I'm not sure if it's because this team's better than in past years, I don't know if they're lucky, or a combination of both,” Gladiators' assistant coach Ron Daub said after the final.

Luck may have little to do with it.

The Gladiators have won the past four Youth Division titles, Daub said.

Gladiators' captain Kole Comin and forwards Alex Hanson and Josh Van Bibber each had two goals in their win over the Junior Storm.

Junior Storm captain Delean McCuaig had his team's lone goal.

"The last couple years have been really good hockey, because lots of guys have been in town,” said Hanson, who won Youth Division MVP.

"Me and my buddy Kole were kind of battling it out the whole tournament hoping for top scorer, but then the guy from Fort Nelson got it, so that was good for him, but we were curious to see who would win (the MVP), and it was pretty cool when they called my name out. It was my first award in the native tournament,” added Hanson, who has played in the tourney for three years.

Hanson also played with the Bantam A Mustangs this season.

"Right now there's a few Mustang teams Outside for provincials and they missed the tournament. I think last year and the year before the hockey was a lot faster and a lot harder. This year was good too, it was a lot of fun,” he said.

The Gladiators started their run with an 8-0 win over the Fort Nelson Bashers on Friday, followed by an 8-0 win over the East Central Wild Ones later the same day.

On Saturday, the eventual champions won 10-2 over the Teslin Aces, who finished third in the Youth Division.

Going along the top half of the draw makes each game less of a challenge.

"That's the easy part. If you do lose a game, then it's really, really difficult; and we won a couple years coming through the back side, so we know how that goes,” Daub said.

"The kids got heart,” he added. "A lot of the kids just want to play. We want the kids who want to play…we're not always the best players, we always keep girls on the team and they turn out to be some of our best players.”

One of those female players was the winner of Youth Division Most Inspirational Player award, Davina McLeod, who has made the trip to Whitehorse from Aklavik, N.W.T. to play in the native tournament the past three years.

McLeod – who scored a goal and two assists in the final – played with the Teslin Roughriders last year.

She said she doesn't have any difficulty settling into new teams.

"I get used to it. During the first game I get the hang of how they play,” said McLeod, who is also going to the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Saskatoon, Sask., on April 30 with the NWT team.

Despite the Gladiators' goal total of 35, the Youth Division top scorer was Leroy Horseman of the Fort Nelson Bashers.

While McLeod's experience with the Gladiators is less common, Daub said the team doesn't get much of a chance to play together before the native tournament.

"These kids seem to play together each year, we get a couple new ones, we lose a couple ...they talk about it and they're buddies, and they play hockey in the minor league, some of them here, some of them just pond hockey,” Daub said.

"We work as a team, and that's what we try to promote.”

Each of the Gladiators' games began closely in the first period, he pointed out, but dropped off as the games wore on.

"I think we kind of wore them out with our tenacity this year. But all the kids we played against were great, good sportsmanship, there's some really good players out there – we just seemed to click this year.”