The Inaugural Sooke Spring Break Peewee Tournament finished up at SEAPARC Leisure Complex this past Sunday. Fans, players and parents enjoyed a fun-filled four days of great hockey, new friends, community economic development and exciting action!
The tournament started on Thursday, March 24 with the C Major division – teams from Duncan, Juan De Fuca and Sooke. The teams were evenly matched and the round-robin scoring included ties and games that were decided by 1-2 goals. Sooke placed third in the round robin and played off against Juan De Fuca C2 and scored a victory to take the bronze. Tournament gold medal winner was Juan De Fuca C1. Next up for the CMajor is an all star tournament in Powell River in April.
Friday fans and players were treated to a visit by Victoria Salmon Kings Mascot Marty the Marmot who helped in the puck drop for the gold medal game of the Major and stayed for the “chuck and duck” and danced with fans to the Village People’s “YMCA.” All in all – a great day.
Friday marked the start of the Minor tournament which had visitors from Surrey, Nanaimo, Duncan, Victoria and Juan de Fuca. Games continued throughout the weekend with a strong showing by the Sooke C minor boys beating JDF 7-3. Sooke’s final game of the round robin saw them pepper 51 shots on net against Cowichan but came out on the round end of the score board… with many saying it was a great game.
Chris the 100.3 Q FM roadie made a trip out tothe rink and set up a booth on Saturday handing out snacks and cranking the tunes. Kierren Connor – a Sooke C minor player – could be heard over the radio with a request of AC/DC’s hockey pump-up song “Thunderstruck” whilst the DJ mentioned the tournament.
At the end of the round robin on Saturday the Sooke boys were fifth out of eight.
Sunday brought the finals with eighth playing seventh, fifth playing sixth, third playing fourth and first playing second. Sooke played hard again but found themselves up against a tough goalie outshooting the team from Nanaimo by a large margin but ended up on the losing end of the score. but as coach Didmon said “the boys battled and never gave up.” Other finals games were decided in five person shoot outs in the JDF – Victoria Ice Hawks Game and the grudge match Cowichan 3 versus Cowichan 4. The gold medal game was highly entertaining hockey going back and forth the whole game with two evenly matched teams. The game went down to the wire tied at one, with Surrey pulling away with two power play goals in the final 15 minutes. Following the game the Minor all star team was announced with three top forwards, two defence and a goalie. Sooke boys took home forward with Dominic Lacroix and Taylor Haisell top goalie.
The final wind-up of the tournament included the drawing of the prizes. The luxury Canucks tickets in a box on the HSBC level were won by local Sookies – the Mills family. Lindy Phillip took home the Starwood Hotels package and many others were given. In all there were more than $12,000 in donated prizes – from many local businesses, Hockey Canada, the CEO of the American Hockey League, The Victoria Salmon Kings, and 3M hockey products Canada to name a few.
In all, more than 250 kids and approximately 1,000 spectators watched games, participated in the chuck-a-duck and it is estimated that more than $45,000 in economic development was generated to Sooke through hotel nights at Sooke Harbor Marina, restaurants, grocery stores, SEAPARC concession, miscellaneous purchases for the tournament and exposure of our community to families who had not been here before.
–Dean Lindal