For the first time in a long time, the community teams outnumbered Yellowknife at their own tournament.
And a couple of those teams left as winners.
The 38th annual First Air Rec Hockey Tournament wrapped up in the capital on April 1 with five new champions crowned on finals day.
The A division final featured a repeat of the 2017 final as Weaver and Devore took on Fuel Flo in an all-Yellowknife battle. Weaver and Devore came out on top by a score of 4-1 to successfully defend their title.
The B division final saw the Deline Braves take on Ron's Auto from Yellowknife and it just wasn't meant to be for the Braves as they fell by a score of 3-0.
Carson Roche played with the Braves and said they ran into a hot goaltender in the form of Liam Tereposky from Yellowknife.
“We literally threw everything we could at him and he stopped everything,” he said.
Deline ended up nearly missing the playoffs altogether but a huge stroke of luck in their final round-robin game against the Iqaluit Whalers saw them through. They had to beat Iqaluit by two goals or more in order to claim second place in their pool and were literally gifted that chance in the dying moments of the game.
“We were up one and they pulled their goalie to go for the tie,” said Roche. “We scored on the empty net and we ended up cheering like we won the title.”
This year's C division champions are the Nahanni Inn Flyers of Fort Simpson who knocked off La Loche, Sask., in the final by a score of 8-3.
Flyers captain Owen Rowe said his team played very well in the finals, which is something they didn't necessarily do in the round-robin meeting between the two teams.
“When we played them in the round-robin, we got up on them 5-1, and we let up and let them back in it,” he said. “La Loche plays a lot like (boxer) Floyd Mayweather – they counter everything. Anytime we made a mistake, they countered. They have a good hockey team and some really good players.”
La Loche only came with seven players and picked up some players when they arrived in Yellowknife, which meant a long weekend for them.
Rowe said instead of trying to stickhandle past them, which is what got them into trouble in spots during the round-robin game, they played a dump-and-chase game in the finals to make them skate.
“We did that and that tired them out a bit,” he said.
With the win, Rowe has now been a part of a championship team in every division except the E division but he said he won't be contesting that division for a while yet.
“If we have the players, we'll play up in the B division next year,” he said. “All of the groups are pretty even for the skill that's in them and anyone can beat anyone.”
The D division saw the Independent Eagles of Yellowknife beat the Norman Wells Roughnecks while Choice North Hotels, a combination of Fort Smith and Hay River, defeated Fort Simpson Nogha in that final.
In total, 38 teams from the NWT, Nunavut and Saskatchewan took part in the tournament, which was a happy sight for Ryan Nichols, president of the Yk Rec Hockey League.
“I'm happy so many came in to play,” he said. “They spend a lot of money to come into town and it's always good to see and to play teams we don't normally play.”
Dave Earle, the tournament's chairperson, agreed with Nichols' sentiment.
“We had great help from First Air with that,” he said. “Without the deal they gave the out-of-town teams, they wouldn't have been here. It made for a hugely successful tournament and everyone seemed to have a great time. Lots of good sportsmanship across the board.”