Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Sam Riches

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS – Members of the Igloo Building Supplies hockey team pose with their championship trophy after defeating the Yukon Brewing team on Sunday afternoon. The team captured first place in the A Division of the Rendezvous Hockey Tournament.

Igloo Building Supplies win gold in Rendezvous Hockey Tourney

A busy weekend of Rendezvous hockey concluded on Sunday with the gold medal match-ups at the Takhini arena.

By Sam Riches on February 27, 2012

A busy weekend of Rendezvous hockey concluded on Sunday with the gold medal match-ups at the Takhini arena.

Twenty teams, spread out across three divisions, participated in the annual tournament.

Six teams formed the Men's A Division, 10 teams were in the B Division and four teams made up the Women's Division.

In the first match-up of the day the Women's final pitted the Wild Things against the Dawson City team.

The Wild Things, composed mainly of member's of the Whitehorse Women's Hockey Association, were a favourite heading into the game but Dawson City was able to prevail, 7-2.

It took a shoot-out to decide a winner on the Men's B final with the Selkirk Bears taking on the Dawson City Aces.

With the score knotted at 3 at the end of regulation, Dan Cletheroe was able to bury the game winner, giving the Bears a 4-3 victory.

"That was one of the best games all weekend,” said Geoff Quinsey, who helped organize the tournament.

"It was a great finish and a lot of fun to watch.”

Next up was the A Division final that matched the Yukon Brewing team against Igloo Building Supplies team.

The two squads had met previously on Friday afternoon where they fought their way to a 6-6 tie in an extremely competitive game.

The memories from that battle were still fresh on Sunday afternoon as the teams squared off again.

"Both teams knew a little bit about each other coming into the game so they played a little more of a defensive game,” said Quinsey.

"Neither team wanted to give up a goal and they were both playing very hard, very tough hockey.”

Igloo Building Supplies were the first to get into the scoring column when Scott MacDonald was able to beat Yukon Brewing's goaltender Brian Power at the 11-minute mark of the first period.

The goal spurred a scoring run for the Igloo Building Supplies team as they were then able to notch two more goals before the end of the period.

Undeterred, Yukon Brewing came out and scored a quick goal less than three minutes into the second period when Jared Buchfo was able sneak the puck past Tytus Hardy, who had a strong game in net for team Igloo.

Over the next six minutes, Yukon Brewing evened the score at 3 with goals from Derek Klassen and a second goal from Buchfo.

With just over five minutes to go Travis Stewart picked the open corner of the net to break the tie and give Igloo Building Supplies a 4-3 lead.

Thirty seconds later, Dan Johnson added another goal.

After Jake Jirousek of Yukon Brewing drew a roughing penalty with two minutes to go, Clint Teichrobe was able to add the final goal, bringing the score to 6-3.

"It was a hard fought game for both teams,” said Quinsey.

"The goalies on both sides played great and the team play was extremely strong.

"The caliber of hockey was just terrific, it made for a really fun game to watch for everybody in the stands.”

The event drew its largest crowd on Saturday night when the Igloo team and the Midget A Mustangs squared off.

"The place was just packed for that game and they put on a really great show for the fans,” Quinsey said.

"It was really exciting hockey.”

It took an extra period of action for the game to be decided, with the Igloo team defeating the Mustangs in overtime, 4-3.

Quinsey said the tournament was a great facilitator in bringing the local hockey community together.

"We had terrific support from the Midget B parents who took care of all the hospitality work, we had great support from the referees, timekeepers and arena staff,” he said. "Everyone worked hard to keep the tournament running and it allowed everyone to enjoy some good hockey.”

The tournament has seen an increase in it's Women's Division over the years and Quinsey is hopeful that the tournament will continue to grow in the future and draw a larger local crowd to the games.

"We've now got a pretty big women's tournament attached to it as well so we've got organizers from the Women's hockey league who help put everything together,” he said.

"The hockey in Rendezvous is always great so it's a really fun weekend and I think there's plenty of room to grow it into a bigger spectator event,” he said.

"From a hockey standpoint I think it's fantastic.”

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