The Dawson City Nuggets played good Canadian hockey en route to earning a runner-up finish at a tournament in Iceland earlier this month.

The Nuggets dropped the final of the Iceland International Ice Hockey Cup 2015 by a score of 3-2 to the Muskoka 72s, a team rumoured to consist of a number of ex-Ontario Hockey League players.

The two finalists were the only Canadian teams participating in the men’s tournament.

“People at the rink, the people running the concessions, said it was the best game they’ve ever seen played at their rink,” said Nuggets goalie Daniel Naef, also a member of the Nuway Crushing Whitehorse Huskies.

“Iceland’s a pretty young hockey country. There’s only three rinks in Iceland and their senior league only has four teams.”

Naef said he even received an invite to stay and play on Iceland’s national team.

However, the invitees were unable to come up with his required signing bonus – a wife – in time.

The 23-year-old Naef collected three shutouts in his first three games over three different host teams – including a Björninn squad that serves as a feeder team for the national club.

The widest scoring differential was 10-0, when the Nuggets dispatched a team of Icelandic firefighters.

Naef said what made that accomplishment even more special was the fact that 95 per cent of the Nuggets’ roster had not skated since last season.

The tournament was hosted out of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital city, over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Frank Kormandy was named team MVP. The playmaking forward was one of two old-timers on the team, with the rest coming from Dawson’s rec league.

“I’d go again,” Naef said of the experience. “All in all, the people were very welcoming, and even more fluent in English than we were.”

He said the trip cost each player more than US$1,200.

Meanwhile, the Klondike Ice Queens participated in the women’s side of the tournament, going 1-3 in their first on-ice action since March.

“None of us had skated since March,” said 46-year-old blue-liner Janice Cliff.

“We skate on natural ice here, so as soon as our ice melts, it’s gone.

“We had really low expectations, and we met them,” Cliff laughed of the experience. “The whole thing is about camaraderie and promoting the sport of hockey in Iceland.”

The squad included members of Dawson’s fledgling women’s hockey league, which iced just three teams last season.

The 16-player squad ranged in age from 20 to 56.

The league has a de facto travel team that has travelled to Whitehorse in recent years to participate in the Rendezvous tournament.

“Our goal usually at Rendezvous is to score at least one goal,” Cliff said. “We’re definitely not a competitive team, although we try really hard. We’re super into hockey.”

The Ice Queens lost games to Finland and two Toronto-based teams, but outlasted a team from northern Iceland to win 3-2.

“We were pretty evenly matched and they were so much fun to play against,” said Cliff. “We felt some guilt (winning), but we worked hard for it.”

Defenceman Joanne Anderson was named team MVP after scoring the deciding goal in the Ice Queens’ win.

In total, eight teams participated in the women’s tournament, and the Ice Queens finished near the bottom.

Cliff said in addition to the players, more than 20 Dawson residents tagged along on the trip simply to cheer from the stands.

“I think that really says a lot about Dawson,” she said. “In the end, there was well over 40 people from Dawson in the streets of Reykjavik – and from all walks of life.”

Cliff said Iceland was similar to Dawson in terms of climate and topography, except for the abundance of hot springs.

“There’s that same northern sensibility among the locals. That was what everyone carried away.”