WESTLOCK – A young Westlock goalie helped backstop his club, the Edmonton-based ‘AAA’ Canada Crushers, to gold at the 2023 Canadian ‘AAA’ Crusher Desert Classic tournament in Las Vegas May 17-21.
Kaiden Griffiths, 12, said he couldn’t have asked for a better end to his first foray with the Canada Crushers, who posted a 7-5 victory over the Rocky Mountain Warriors from Colorado in the gold medal game of the ‘AAA’ tournament that featured u13 and U15 clubs from across North America — Griffiths was between the pipes for the club’s 8-5 semifinal victory over the On Top Hockey team from Idaho and earned game MVP honours.
“It was really exciting because we were the only Canadian team in my (U13 pee wee) division and we won,” he said, noting they played in the Silver Knights Arena which is home to the Vegas Golden Knights’ American Hockey League affiliate.
“We were really determined to win the tournament the whole way through.”
That determination was key as the club overcame four losses in the round robin, including a 9-4 defeat to the team they’d eventually beat for gold. During the round robin, Griffiths split time with the other keeper.
“It felt really good to earn the MVP,” said Griffiths, who also won a signed Milan Lucic Edmonton Oilers jersey for being the player who demonstrated the most sportsmanship in the tournament.
Griffiths currently attends St. Mary School and spent five years playing minor hockey in Westlock before he moved on to the Hockey Super League’s (HSL) Capital City Knights (CCK). He has also played for the Alberta Wolfpack minor team and spent one year in the Premier Hockey League (PHL) before he was recruited to play goal for the Crushers in May.
Griffiths thanked his coach Richard Demry and assistant coach Aaron Fehlauer for his success and progress over the past year. Long term, Griffiths plans to continue playing hockey and hopes to earn a scholarship to play at the college level.
