Hockey players from all around the southeast flocked to the Bienfait Memorial Arena, for the Battle in the Barn, a three-on-three tournament and skills competition that had players from as far east as Redvers and as far west as Yellow Grass competing in a series of games. The tournament ran from March 23 to 26.
“It was a good little competition. We consider it a nice way to wind up the house hockey season,” said Amanda Pukas, one of the organizers of the tournament.
Players competed in a series of fast paced 30-minute hockey games. The tournament entailed a total of 43 games for the 18 of teams in four divisions: novice, atom, peewee and bantam. Each team was guaranteed four round-robin games, and if they advanced, they played another game in the finals.
The novice, peewee and bantam divisions each had five teams, while the atom division only had three entries.
In addition to the games, Battle in the Barn also featured a separate skills competition for participating players to showcase their prowess on the ice. Players competed in a series of skill-based drills, including relay races, a shootout and a shooting accuracy contest, using a machine called a shooter tutor.
The novice division’s title belonged to Team Burgundy, which was comprised of a diverse roster of players from Estevan, Lampman, Carlyle, Canora and Arcola. They scored a 14-2 victory over Team Grey, a team made up of players from Carievale and Redvers that hadn’t lost a game, leading up to the final.
Team Yellow Grass was crowned the champions in the atom division, after defeating Team Carnduff 17-5.
In the peewee division, Team Green, comprised of players from Carnduff, were crowned division champions after an 11-8 defeat of Estevan’s Team Navy, in the final game.
Team Teal, comprised entirely of Estevan players, were the champions of the bantam division. They took the final game 3-2, against Team Grey.
