GRAND FALLS-WINDSOR, NL – This week, six teams will battle it out for Easter hockey gold at the Joe Byrne Memorial Stadium.
Grand Falls-Windsor is hosting the PeeWee “B” Provincial Hockey Tournament from April 2-4. The tournament will see over 15 games of action, with gold medals to be awarded Wednesday April 4.
Hillary Taylor of the Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts was excited after a big win over the Northeast Eagles Monday.
“We had to win that game,” said the forward. “If we didn’t win this game, we would probably be out.”
Taylor had an assist and the game-clinching, empty-net goal in the hard-fought victory.
“We talked about it in the dressing room,” said Taylor of the game plan to take down the Eagles. “’Forecheck hard.’”
Taylor has high hopes for herself and her team.
“We can win this,” Taylor said. “We need to work as a team, and play as a team.”
This is Taylor’s sixth tournament with the boys, and she said they have won all but one of them.
Mount Pearl Blades skater Liam Galway said hockey is his passion, and his team kicked off the tournament in style.
“Well, we just won our game,” said Galway. “I think it was 6 to 1 against Paradise.”
The Easter hockey tournament has been a year-end tradition across the province for years, and something of a final hurrah for many associations, according to Hockey NL executive director Craig Tulk.
“It’s a culmination of the season and a bit of a celebration for hockey,” he told the Advertiser Tuesday.
With games taking place in communities across the island, it’s a good opportunity for the more than 6,000 players involved to get to places they may have never seen. While the PeeWee tournament is set to wrap up in Grand Falls-Windsor Wednesday, the Atom mega-tournament gets underway Thursday — with more than a dozen teams taking to the ice. As if that weren’t enough hockey for the region, more games are taking place in Botwood throughout the week.
“It’s an opportunity for every level to compete for a provincial championship,” Tulk said. “It’s a great way to end the season.”
-with files from Sarah Ladik
