A group of Grenfell boys took first place in one of Canada’s largest sports festivals, cheered on by a huge group of Grenfell friends and family.
Seven local young men, Scott Hardy, T J Reeve, Nathan Hollinger, Levi Yakimchuk, Josh Switzer, Tyler Speidelsbach and Justin Krahenbil, attended the CBC Hockey Night in Canada Street Hockey Tournament in Regina June 26-27.
They entered their team "Miller Time" in the 19 and under "Grinder" category, which featured a total of six teams.
The tournament started out with "Miller Time" up against the Raiders. The boys came out flying with a convincing 11-5 win.
Game two would be a slightly different story as the team would face off against the "Young Bucks". Back and forth action saw the game end in a tie. A shoot out ensued and "Miller Time" came up empty handed.
The Young Bucks trickled one by goal tender Josh Switzer for the 8-7 win. Game three was
against the opponents call the Hungarian Hand Gernades.
The two evenly matched teams played a fast paced game. Great offence and a little weaker goal tending saw Miller Time in the win column with a 9-6 victory. With this win it secured the boys’ second place and a bye into the semi final on Sunday.
Sunday's semi final action started with Miller Time up against third placed War Pigs. Miller Time came to win and opened the scoring with 5 unanswered goals.
At the final whistle Miller Time held on for the 6-3 win placing them in the final. 1:20 pm Sunday afternoon in the hot sun and blistering pavement was what Miller Time was waiting for, a rematch against the Young Bucks, the team that gave them their only loss.
The boys came out of the gate hard will a 5-0 lead and would not let the Young Bucks back in the game. Miller Time emerged with a 7-1 win. Miller Time was crowned the Champions in the Grinder under 19 category.
The event saw a lot of sunshine, a rare event in the middle of a wet patch.
“It was raining on the way up on Saturday, but then the sun came out for the rest of the day, so it was good,” said Tyler Speidelsbach, one of the Miller Time players.
While they were there, the Grenfell boys also did their part to help Mandi Schwartz, a young Saskatchewan woman battling leukemia. Schwartz is in dire need of a bone marrow transplant, and a bone marrow drive was held at the event.
“Our whole team got swabbed to see if we were a match,” Speidelsbach said.
Roughly 1,000 volunteers stepped up to be tested as possible donors.
Winners of the ‘Elite’ division, whose players must all be 19 and older, will move on to the National Championships to be held in Victoria B.C. in February 2011 as part of CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada.
