Fun and gaining some experience was what last Saturday’s novice tournament in Boyle was all about.
Although the hometown Blazers couldn’t post a win, head coach Jason Clace said they had fun and competed hard.
“I feel that there were a lot of positives throughout the tournament,” he said.
“Overall, the reception from the all the teams good and the players had a lot of fun.”
The Blazers fell 10-3 to the Athabasca Ice Hawks, lost 11-5 to the Sturgeon Mustangs and 12-2 to Smoky Lake.
Strong goaltending from Corbin Berard kept the Blazers in the game with Athabasca through one period, but fatigue set in on the short bench.
Sean Heyer had all three Boyle markers, one of which came on a penalty shot.
Boyle started strong versus the Mustangs with Harley Irving getting his first goal of the season, followed by Ryan Ouelette and Lauren Clace to take 3-1 lead only to see it quickly evaporate. Heyer rounded out the scoring, with Paige Bechthold making a great set up pass for one of the goals. Darius Whitford made an appearance in goal, making some great saves throughout the game.
Versus Smoky Lake, Sam Delorme and Heyer had the goals, while Andrian Semerikov just missed on a couple breakaway opportunities and a couple forwards, Andrew Haxby and Jayme Houle, played some great defence.
One positive was that the Blazers did win both of the “six goal” relay shootout they participated in.
Clace believes the most important thing at this level is for the kids to have fun.
“We want the kids to enjoy the sport and continue to develop, but not at the expense of having fun. We continue to work on skill development and skating and I think at this level more than any other level, you notice the improvements that kids make throughout the season,” he said.
Clace added its hard having a small roster, but that means there is no shortage of ice time and he thinks that one of the benefits of playing hockey in a small community
“It’s the opportunity to be at the rink all the time. We have a great competitive group and they work hard every shift. We have several first year players, so the basic rules have been a learning curve for some,” he stated.
“But, as the season progresses, you can see the understanding, skill level and the confidence develop further and the competitiveness of the games getting better.”
