GRAND FALLS-WINDSOR, NL – Grand Falls-Windsor’s Under 12 Cataracts were recently invited to Ottawa to participate in the Canada150 celebration hockey tournament on Parliament Hill.
The team of 13 girls left Dec. 26 to head to the capital, where they played three games of hockey against teams from Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba.
The games, all scheduled to be played on an outdoor rink on Parliament Hill, were moved to an indoor stadium due to frigid temperatures.
“The ice was beginning to crack so our games that were scheduled for outdoors got moved to indoors,” said assistant coach Ian Stone, but that didn’t hinder the experience for the team.
“It was really fun,” said player Kallie Stone. “I liked when we played hockey with everyone and we just had a really good time up there.”
The level of hockey was a little higher than the girls are used to playing at home. Opposing team members were in Grades 6 and 7, and most of the Cataract girls are in Grades 4 and 5, explained Stone.
For many of the girls, including Kallie Stone and Sarah Meade, it was their first time traveling outside of the province and their first time on an airplane.
Aside from playing hockey, the team also watched an NHL game, visited museums and toured the Parliament Building.
Watching her first NHL game in Ottawa with her teammates was one of the best parts of the trip, Meade told the Advertiser.
“It was a really good experience; it really was just getting to go up there with the whole team and being on the bus all the time with everyone – it was really fun,” said Stone.
