Prince Albert to host 24th annual Female Hockey Tournament this weekend

Two members of the Prince Albert Foxes warm up prior to a game during the Prince Albert Female hockey tournament at the Kinsmen Arena. -- Nathan Reiter/Daily Herald

Every rink in the city of Prince Albert will be bustling with activity this weekend as the 24th annual Prince Albert Female Hockey Tournament kicks off on Friday morning.

This year, the tournament will host 59 teams in all divisions from U9 ‘C’ all the way through U18 ‘AA’.

Luc Robin is a member of the organizing committee and has played a role in organizing the tournament every year of its existence. Robin is one of four key organizers for the tournament alongside Jim Flynn, Taryn Svenson and Ashley Leeb. He says the tournament has come a long way since the first year

“Way back when, the first tournament I had we only had six teams. The (biggest) change would be the amount of teams coming in and being able to have out of province teams attend this and participate.”

More than 927 players, 200 coaches and families from across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta will make their way to Prince Albert for the tournament.

Robin says they are expecting about eight out of province teams from Alberta and Manitoba to be in Prince Albert this weekend. He says the amount of teams coming in will require the tournament to utilize every available sheet of ice in the city.

“The financial impact is quite significant, of course, because of the amount of teams coming in. Throughout the course of the weekend, we’re using all the rinks that are available. We use all the community club rinks. East Hill, East End, West Hill, Crescent. We have ice at the Art Hauser and we also have ice at Buckland. Our home base is the Kinsmen.”

Games will take place at the Buckland Arena (U18A), Crescent Heights Arena (U15A), Dave Steuart and Art Hauser Centre (U15AA), East End rink (U11C), East Hill rink (U9B and C), Kinsmen Arena (U18AA) and the West Hill arena (U11B and U13B).

Every single age division in the tournament will feature at least one team from Prince Albert. Robin says it is important that local girls will be able to play in front of their friends and family.

“It’s really good because you’ve got the grandparents and you have got family (members) that’s able to come in and watch and cheer them on and encourage them. It’s a game so at the end of the day, it’s building sportsmanship, character and life skills. Basically playing as a team and that type of stuff.”
For the U9 divisions, games will be played in two 24 minute halves with three minute shifts with play being five-on-five. U11 divisions will play three twenty minute run time periods with the last five minutes of the game being stop time.

U13-U18 divisions will play three 20 minute stop time periods. Run time will be utilized if there is more than a five goal difference in the score.

Robin says one of the main benefits of the tournament is that it will provide an opportunity for teams to face other opponents they would not typically see in their own leagues.

“It’s important because it gives the girls in each of those divisions an opportunity to be able to play against other teams not in their own league kind of thing. We have a lot of out of province teams that are here also. It gives you that opportunity to play different league teams.”

The first game of the tournament is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning when the U15 AA Prince Albert Foxes take on the Edmonton Ice Blue at the Art Hauser Centre.

sports@paherald.sk.ca

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