Photo by Marcel Vander Wier
BRAND-NEW SEASON 鈥 Nacho Nyak Dun DC forward Justin Saunders tries to get around Roadhouse defender Violeta Azizaj while goalie Aedan Greer looks on during the final of the Bob Park Icebreaker Broomball Tournament.
Photo by Marcel Vander Wier
BRAND-NEW SEASON 鈥 Nacho Nyak Dun DC forward Justin Saunders tries to get around Roadhouse defender Violeta Azizaj while goalie Aedan Greer looks on during the final of the Bob Park Icebreaker Broomball Tournament.
Photo by Marcel Vander Wier
FAMILIAR FOES 鈥 Roadhouse鈥檚 Mike Wintemute, left, battles with Nacho Nyak Dun DC鈥檚 John Tom Tom, right, for a loose ball during Sunday afternoon鈥檚 championship final.
For the second straight year, a father-son duo helped Nacho Nyak Dun DC win the Bob Park Icebreaker Broomball Tournament.
For the second straight year, a father-son duo helped Nacho Nyak Dun DC win the Bob Park Icebreaker Broomball Tournament.
Chris Saunders and his son, Justin Saunders, both scored in Sunday鈥檚 finale to help Nacho defeat Roadhouse 2-1 in overtime at Takhini Arena.
Justin Saunders鈥 game-winner came shortly into a five-minute extra period of four-on-four action with no goalies.
The goal helped Nacho retain its tournament title from last year, when they also beat Roadhouse 2-1.
鈥淒ad鈥檚 really good. John鈥檚 (Tom Tom) really good,鈥 the younger Saunders said of his club鈥檚 continued success. 鈥淒ad and John have probably played 29 years together and they鈥檙e good. That helps.鈥
With six minutes left in the game, Chris Saunders finally opened the scoring when his slapshot from near the left faceoff dot beat Roadhouse goalie Aedan Greer over the shoulder.
The play started with a no-look behind-the-back pass from James MacDonald to Justin Saunders, who sifted it over to his father.
The 1-0 lead looked like it would stand up until Roadhouse forward Kaleb Dawe drew a tripping penalty on Justin Saunders with 1:42 left in the game.
Following a timeout, Roadhouse pulled their goalie for a six-on-four advantage and quickly knotted things up when Dawe buried a shot over Nacho goalie Tim MacIntosh鈥檚 glove hand following passes from Mike Wintemute and Melanie Lachapelle.
In overtime, it was Roadhouse who applied the early pressure, but some timely saves from Nacho defender Pauline Frost helped bide some time for Justin Saunders to strike.
鈥淵ou know that whatever happens, the goal鈥檚 going to be a pretty easy goal,鈥濃坱he sniper said of OT. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great, but it鈥檚 also pretty crazy when you see they had three or four chances early in overtime.鈥
Josh Holmes, a new face among the Nacho faithful, said the tournament made for a fun weekend.
Still relatively new to broomball, Holmes said it is harder to play than it looks.
鈥淚t is very difficult to play if you don鈥檛 pay attention to what you should be doing out there,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut it comes down to goalies. If you have a good goalie, you can go far.鈥
The Nacho squad gelled quickly, he added, which helped them achieve success.
For the second straight year, Roadhouse failed to hoist the Bob Park trophy after a stellar tournament.
The team worked hard to neutralize the Saunders boys and Nacho鈥檚 outside shooters.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the key,鈥 said Greer. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to get in Justin鈥檚 head and shut down their outside shooters.
鈥淔or me, being the goalie, it was kind of sad to see the overtime not include me,鈥 he added. 鈥淏ut I thought we had them there.鈥
Other members of the winning Nacho team included: Timothy Laboucan, Charles McLeod, Suki Sidhu, Paul Martin, Pret Sidhu, Leah McLeod, Roxy Stasyszyn, Amy Kolfer and Jeremy Beebe.
A total of nine teams competed in the three-day weekend tournament.
Besides the two finalists, other teams hitting the ice were The Ridge, the Spectrum Bears, Yukon Thunder, P&M鈥圧ecycling, Capital Towing, Yukon Brewing and the Dental Donkeys.
The tournament honours the late Bob Park, a high-scoring broomball phenom who died in 2006.
While Greer never knew Park, he said the tournament has always been a special one for the Roadhouse squad, named after the now-defunct sports bar Park owned.
Roadhouse player Gibson Pearson donned Park鈥檚 retired No. 10 jersey for the weekend tournament.
League president Milford Allain said temperature-permitting, league play will get underway this weekend.
The Yukon Broomball Association is also hoping to send a Yukon squad to the national championships in Montreal April 8 to 11.
Interested players can contact him at milf.allain@gmail.com.
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