麻豆社区

Roadhouse overcame the league champion Spectrum Security Bears to win the annual Function in the Junction broomball tournament last weekend.

Roadhouse beat the Bears 3-1 in Haines Junction in the final contest, triumphing over the 2013 tournament victors and the Yukon Broomball Association champions for the past two years running.

Kaleb Dawe scored two of Roadhouse's three goals, slapping the final one out of the air and past the Bears' goaltender to clinch the game in the second of two 18-minute periods.

Not to be manhandled, the Bears fought back with well-placed airborne and centering passes and coordinated drives and dekes in the final quarter of the game.

Mike Wintemute managed to net one for the Bears, while Jim Dobush scored the first goal for Roadhouse.

The team went undefeated through all seven games, with goaltender Aedan Greer cinching three shutouts.

Dawe said Roadhouse's variety of players helped steer them through.

"A good combination of wisdom and young skill,鈥� he said.

But the sheer number of games compacted into a 36-hour time period took it's toll.

"I am sore,鈥濃�圖awe admitted. "Twelve out of 10 on the sore scale.

"That's enough broomball for a while,鈥� he added laughing.

Despite several games becoming chippy, the tournament final was a good-natured battle of skill.

"They're a fun team to play against,鈥� Bears player Darryl Cann said after the game. "A clean team. They've done well all year ... their goalie played amazingly too.鈥�

Cann noted his team was short-benched, but "we played well鈥� nonetheless.

On Saturday, a round-robin game between the Yukon Thunder and a hybrid of Nacho Nyak Dun DC and the Ridge Pub got overheated.

Thunder centre Chris Sutton crosschecked defenceman Vanessa Brault in front of the Nacho Ridge net, knocking her to the ground and freeing him to slap the ball past goaltender Ryan Hannah a split second later.

Shouting ensued from the Nacho Ridge bench, with Sutton being knocked to the ground as retribution on the next play, leading to a penalty for Nacho Ridge. Sutton's goal stood up as the winner.

However, the consolation final saw Capital Towing dominate the exhausted Thunder players, who were gassed from back-to-back games.

Capital's fully-stocked bench helped it put power play-like pressure on their opponents, and they finally netted their first goal after nearly 30 minutes of play.

Francois Lafortune, who has played since day one of Whitehorse's 30-year-old broomball league, cut to the middle and scored with a backhand lift with 6:45 left on the clock to give Capital Towing a 1-0 win.

"We had a bit of time to rest, so that makes a big difference.... If you stop running, you stop moving.鈥�

The 53-year-old noted the tables were evened up a little by the pub-induced exhaustion hitting players on both teams.

"There's a bit of nightlife sometimes, of course.鈥�

Lafortune was particularly gleeful that he scored one more goal than his 15-year-old son during the tournament, who netted two overall in his first run in the Junction.

"Scoring goals, everything was fun,鈥� said Antoine Lafortune.

Francois also touched on broomball's importance as a source of athletics and community during the long winter months.

"It's a good excuse to go out in winter when it's 20 below,鈥� he said.

The Bears snared the tournament championship in 2013 with a 1-0 win over the Ridge Pub.