An exciting Canora Atom White hockey tournament was held on November 25 and 26.
It featured teams from Kamsack, Preeceville, Langenburg, Esterhazy, Swan Valley and the hosts team, Canora Atom White, said Kent Hembling, coach.
The first day of tournament play started at 8 a.m. at the Canora Civic Centre. All teams played two games during the day, in a round robin format. There were two divisions with three teams in each division, said Hembling.
The Canora team didn’t fare too well on day one and lost both games, one to Kamsack and the other to Esterhazy.
Esterhazy and Langenburg were the teams that finished at the top of the divisions after round robin play. There were approximately 12 hours of hockey played at the rink on day one, with six games in total.
Day two started at with “an unbelievable” semi final game that featured Esterhazy and Preeceville, Hembling said. Both teams gave it their all and gave fans their price of admission. Esterhazy came out on top of the back-and-forth affair by the score of 4-3.
That game set the tone for the rest of the day. All three finals, the C, the B and the A finals were the most intense, hard-fought battles of the tournament.
The C final pitted the host Canora Atom White team against the Swan Valley Stampeders in an evenly-matched game. Both teams were pumped up to win a banner, said Hembling.
The game started with end-to-end action. Both goaltenders stood tall and at the end of the first period it was 1-0 for Canora. The goal was scored by Cash Mitten on a great pass from Cayden Kelly, he said.
The Canora team went into the dressing room feeling good about the game but Jessee Kopelchuk, one of the players, figured the team needed some extra help. So she brought out the lucky oranges, and each player had a couple of slices and took instructions from their coaches, Kent Hembling, Greg Smith and Nicole Korpusik, said Hembling.
The second period started and Swan Valley evened the score at 1-1 on a goal by Kaiden Bell, as he squeaked one passed Connor Kraynick, the Canora goalie.
After another eight minutes of intense action, Chase Hembling banged home a goal from in front of the net past Swan Valley goalie Scott Tibbett, who was one of the best goalies of the tournament.
The Cobras kept the pressure on after the go-ahead goal and took a two goal lead with Hembling’s second goal of the game just over two minutes later.
But the Stampeders responded and evened the score at 3-3 before the second period was over on a pair of goals from Brock Gosselin.
The third period was “all-out crazy.”
Swan Valley started the scoring just three minutes in with a hat trick goal by Gosselin.
The next 11 minutes of the period were filled with tight checking, end-to-end action and Canora getting into penalty trouble. Swan Valley went up 5-3 with a fourth goal by Gosselin.
“On the scoring play the puck seemed to have eyes, and took about three bounces off sticks and bodies in front of the net to beat Canora’s goaltender and find the back of the net,” said Hembling.
At that point Canora took a timeout, allowing the troops to rally for the final push to attempt to tie up the game.
A spark must have been lit. With two minutes and 41 seconds left, Cash Mitten made a beautiful play from the corner to the front of the net and found Chase Hembling who shot the puck passed the goalie to pull Canora within one goal, he said
That line kept the momentum going and with one minute and 26 seconds left in the game, Mitten set up Hembling for another outstanding play to produce the tying goal, which was Hembling’s fourth of the game.
The third period finished with the score knotted at five goals apiece. Overtime was needed. There was a two-minute sudden death overtime of three-on-three play.
There was end-to-end action and the fans were loud. Then with 27 seconds left Canora had one final quality scoring chance when Jessee Kopelchuk intercepted a pass at the Canora blue line and sped towards the Stampeders’ goaltender.
She was flying down the ice at the end of her shift with an opponent on her tail, said Hembling.
“With a valiant effort she almost scored, but the Swan valley player just got a piece of her stick as she shot the puck on the goal.”
The score was still tied at the end of overtime, so a sudden death shootout was needed to decide the game
Five shooters from each team got to shoot but the goalies stoned most of the shooters. Cash Mitten scored on his turn with a nifty deke.
Connor Kraynick was unbelievable in the Canora net, stopping three out of the five shots he faced, Hembling said.
“He played outstanding game with some breathtaking saves.”
In the end Swan Valley came out the victor in the game by outscoring Canora in the shootout. Both teams left it all out on the ice for this game and treated the fans with a game that will not soon be forgotten, said Hembling.
The B final had Kamsack matched up against Preeceville. Kamsack played great hockey for two periods and took a 5-2 lead heading into the third, he said.
“But Preeceville came out flying and tied up the game at 5-5 with over a minute left.”
It looked like there was going to be another game heading into overtime, but with 32 seconds left Preeceville pounced on a loose puck and scored to go up by one and won the B final 6-5.
“So another nail biter was played by two great teams,” he said.
The day and the tournament came to an end with the A side final, as Langenburg faced off against Esterhazy, said Hembling.
“The game had amazing goaltending and high flying play. Esterhazy came out on top by a score of 9 - 3.”
Canora Atom white would like to acknowledge all the teams for coming and supporting the tournament, said Hembling.
The tournament sponsors were: Leland Campbell Kondratoff Persick LLP, Canora RCMP, Sas-Kam Sportsman Ltd., Kent Hembling Construction, Gateway Co-op, SportChek Yorkton, Canadian Tire Yorkton, Crossroads Credit Union, Challoner Farms Inc., J.P. Lukey Trucking, PK Herefords, Kraynick Farms, and Norquay Agencies.
Team members appreciate all the parents for their organizational work and volunteering their time to work at the raffle table, as time keepers, and working the 50/50, Hembling said. Managers Michelle Hembling and Sherri Roebuck were acknowledged for all their hard work to bring everything together to ensure the tournament ran smoothly.
Hembling said overall the tournament was extremely successful, and most importantly “all the kids had a blast.”
