By K.A. Pendergast
Another busy weekend at the North Thompson Sportsplex with Clearwater hosting Atom Development C Championships. The weekend began early for the Clearwater Atom Icehawks with their tournament starting at noon on Friday.
The first puck drop saw the Clearwater team facing off against Merritt Junior Cents.
The teams were fairly evenly matched with a number of shots against each goal in the early stages and none going in.
Later on in the game, the scoring kept close with the home team eventually falling to Merritt in a competitive 8-6 final. The tournament held a total of eight teams.
The teams included were Merritt, Chase, Vernon, West Kelowna, Summerland, Kelowna, Salmon Arm and Clearwater.
Saturday morning began with Merritt against West Kelowna and a number of other close match-ups. Most teams were only a few points apart in the scoring.
The finals began Sunday. West Kelowna faced off against Kelowna saw West Kelowna taking the win with a 9-1 game. Next was Merritt taking the win over Summerland in a 4-3 come from behind win. Finals saw both those winners compete for the end pennant and West Kelowna took out Merritt for the title.
More local hockey news: the Clearwater peewee Icehawks took the pennant to win the Thompson Cariboo League after winning the playoffs in Logan Lake last weekend. Now they’ll host at home the District Championships this weekend starting on March 13.
This week’s featured player is goal-tender Tristan Cool from the Clearwater Atom Icehawks. Tristan is number 31 and has been playing pretty much since he could walk. His first time on the ice was at 18 months old while on Lake Louise during a visit.
He has been playing net for three years now and one of the things he likes most about hockey is the competitive side of it. Tristan’s favorite team is the Montreal Canadiens with Carey Price as his favourite player. He also looks forward to many more years of the competition.