Submitted to the Castlegar News
This past weekend both Castlegar pee wee house teams travelled to Spokane to compete in the Young American Days tournament.
In round robin play, the Castlegar Giants defeated SAYHA 3 by a score of 3-0. They then defeated Cranbrook 2-1 and Nelson 2-0.
The Castlegar Hitmen also saw victory by defeating SAYHA 4 by a score of 7-1. They then beat SAYHA 2 by a score of 2-0 and finished the round robin with a 2-0 win over SAYHA 1.
With four teams (Castlegar Giants, Castlegar Hitmen, Tri Cities and South Delta) finishing all their games undefeated, it came down to goals against.
All four teams each allowed only one goal against in the round robin, so the next tiebreaker was fewest penalty minutes. As luck would have it, both Castlegar teams were tied again.
Unfortunately for South Delta and Tri Cities, they had a few more penalty minutes and had to play for third and fourth.
With a 2-0 final, the Castlegar Giants brought home the gold medal and the Castlegar Hitmen brought home silver.
In other pee wee news, the West Kootenay Wildcats female hockey team, based out of Trail but made up of Castlegar, Greater Trail, and Grand Forks girls this year, came out on top at the Surrey Superheart tournament this month. The tournament is the biggest female event in BC, hosting 43 teams (novice to midget). The Wildcats entered the Tier 2 pee wee division going up against Langley, South Delta, Tri-Cities, and Meadow Ridge. In round robin play, they went 3-0-1.
The tie was against Langley, who the Wildcats would end up facing in the finals, where the score was 1-1 at the end of the first period and remained so until the end of regulation time which resulted in the game going to five minutes of four-on-4 overtime and then a shootout.
It took four shooters before Megan Gorman from Grand Forks scored the winner. Kayda Lohrer earned three shutouts and only gave up three goals in the whole tournament.
The team is now gearing up for playoffs in Spokane March 6 to 8.
