Nine teams took part in the Yukon pee wee invitational hockey championship this past weekend, held in Whitehorse.

The tournament was divided into two pools, with the nine Whitehorse house league teams in Pool B and four teams from outside communities in Pool A� Watson Lake, Dawson City boys, Dawson City girls and the Juneau Crimson Bears.

Sunday afternoon's pool B final between Skookum and Castle Rock Enterprises was an intense battle, with both Skookum goaltender Steven Harlow and Castle Rock goalie Brad Gustafson making some key saves. Skookum ended up taking the game 2-1.

Yellow Cab took home the bronze medal in a game earlier Saturday.

The full results from Pool A were not available by press time, although Juneau did end up with bronze.

Skookum coach Gerry Rivest said it was a slow start to the tournament for his team, which lost their first game Friday. But after the loss, the team had a meeting in the dressing room.

'I told them if they came to the rink mentally and physically prepared to play, they could beat any one of these teams,' stated Rivest. 'And they came and did it.'

Rivest said by the end of the tournament, his squad was banged up, but he told them if he could make all the bruises he ever had on his body from hockey reappear, he would be black. The harder your work, he said, the more rewarding all of those bruises and hard work will be.

'Three or four of these kids were on painkillers and iced up, already at this level.'

But it was the effort of every single player on Skookum, not just the stars, that propelled the team past all the injuries and helped them claim gold.

The team's entire season has been similar to the tournament, starting off slow and picking up speed along the way.

At the start of the season, Gage Francis could barely skate. Rivest said that was hard at first, because in sports, players always want to pass to the players who are good, which in hockey usually means the best skaters.

'But we used a team system,' explained the coach. 'By the end of the year, he's obviously our most improved player.

'They (the team) bought into the system and today it was all worth it. They believed in my big team, little me approach. Nobody stands above the rest, they are all equal.'

Skookum only had 12 skaters and a goaltender this season, but almost every player came out to every game all year and nobody missed a practice unless they were out of town.

Rivest said he expected excellent play from the five players on Skookum who also play on the Yukon's pee wee rep team Chantelle and Travis Rivest, captain Travis Park, Joel Brennan and Jeremy Schmidt.

'But it's those little guys on the second line ... those guys have shown if they work hard and try things, it can happen.'

One player who has really impressed the senior Rivest is Harlow, who began the season really discouraged with his position in goal. The youngster wasn't having a lot of fun at the time, and he had other players telling him he wasn't good. The coach said he just needed a little confidence.

'Instead of dissecting him and giving him heck, I told him, if you stay in the water, you're going to drown. The crease is blue, if you stay in there, you give them too much net to look at. If you step outside the crease, it gives the guys less angles to shot from.'

Harlow also attended a goaltending school, showing the coach he was serious about improving and then showing he had improved in the past weekend's tournament.

'Today, he played excellent, letting in just one goal this morning (in the semifinal) and one tonight. He was our third defenceman out there. He stood on his head for us when he needed to.'

Another goaltender who stood on his head throughout the weekend was Castle Rock's Brad Gustafson, who was named goalie of the tournament following the final.

The semifinal game for Castle Rock went to overtime, so Gustafson was called upon to make some big saves. And in the final, he only lost by one goal.

The coaching staff for Castle Rock said forwards Luke McDougall and Bryden Engren-Cook, as well as defenceman Chris Whynot, who was named to the all-star team, also played well on the weekend.

Skookum's Chantelle Rivest was one of the forwards named to the all-star squad, along with Yellow Cab's David Stephens. Chantelle also received three of the hustle awards given out after each game.

'I'm so proud,' she said, especially because she beat out a lot of guys for the honour. 'The other team (Castle Rock) is so cocky. The guys were saying, We're going to beat you' and, You're going down.' So it felt really good.'

Chantelle said her best game was probably the first game against Coca-Cola on Friday.

'I was all over. I was doing everything. I was skating, passing, and my shooting was good.'

Chantelle was also impressed with Park and gave credit to teammate Emily Nugent for setting her up around the net.

'She was always looking for me. I think we play really well together.'

The young forward also agreed with her coach that the most improved player for the season is definitely Francis.

'Now, he learned how to do a slapshot before I have, and I've been playing hockey for a long time. So, it's kind of embarrassing for me, but I'm really glad he picked it up so fast and is learning a lot.'

Five or six of the players on Skookum will be making the jump to bantam next season, and Gerry isn't sure whether he's going to be coaching again next year. But this squad will always remember how they turned their year around and wound up champions.

'At the beginning, we weren't exactly the best,' said Chantelle. 'We had a lot of beginners, but we also had five of the rep players.

'So, with us going to our rep practices and our house games, it really picked up our game. I think we really developed as a team.'