Squamish hosted its biggest hockey tournament of the season over the Family Day long weekend.
The atom rep tournament attracted 16 teams, which played 38 games over the weekend from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
In order to get in all the games, the tournament started Thursday night and required a couple of games to be played in North Vancouver for teams on their way to Squamish.
The Squamish Eagles’ highlight came against Powell River on Saturday afternoon. The team jumped out to an early lead and after killing off a five-on-three, added another goal when Noel Harper scored on a deke. Midway though the first period, Powell River got on the board, but Squamish restored its two-goal lead when captain Brady Reed fired a bullet from the point into the back of the Powell River net.
On a powerplay late in the first, Reed fired another hard shot from the point, which was stopped, but Emmitt Guest was on the doorstep to put in the rebound for a 4-1 lead.
The locals continued to add pressure through the second and were up 6-1, with one period to play. Powell River did get one past goalie Sam Beatty, who dished up some flashy glove and kick saves through the game, but Squamish cruised to an easy 8-2 victory.
The team finished second in its pool behind Whitehorse and ahead of Langley and Powell River.
On Sunday, Squamish managed to apply late pressure against Merritt but could not move on in the gold bracket playoff round, as they dropped the game 5-4.
For the tournament as a whole, the championship in the gold bracket came down to the Whistler Hawks versus the Whitehorse Mustangs on Monday afternoon.
The Yukon team scored late in the first period and looked like it might take control, but Whistler responded with three unanswered goals in the second to take the lead. Early in the third, Whitehorse added a powerplay marker but that was as close as it got, as Whistler won 3-2 to take the top prize for the tournament.
While there was the odd lopsided score, tournament coordinator Dave Knight and his team aimed to keep the games competitive, reseeding the teams after the round robin into gold, silver and bronze brackets to try to match up teams of similar calibre so that the playoff round games stayed competitive.
“I don’t believe in meaningless games,” Knight said.
The tournament, he added, tends to be a popular one because of the long weekend, especially in that it does not conflict with times such as at Christmas when some families do not want to make trips for tournaments.
He added that he could easily have added more teams if there was enough ice.
“We had at least 10 more teams that wanted to come. Obviously, we’ve got one sheet of ice.”
Next month, Squamish is scheduled to hold Bantam tournaments.
