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ONE FOR THE AGES 鈥 Goaltender Lucas Yuill, front, celebrates winning the Grade 6/7 boys floor hockey title with his Holy Family Hurricanes teammates last week. At left is coach Pat Berrel. Photo courtesy of CORINNA YUILL

Yuill backstops Hurricanes to floor hockey title

A wheelchair-bound goalie put on a performance to remember en route to floor hockey gold last week.

By Marcel Vander Wier on March 9, 2016

A wheelchair-bound goalie put on a performance to remember en route to floor hockey gold last week.

Lucas Yuill, 12, backstopped the Holy Family Hurricanes to the Yukon elementary floor hockey title last Wednesday in a game that went all the way to a shootout.

On their home turf, Holy Family beat the Elijah Smith Eagles 3-2 to top all 11 participating teams.

Following a 2-2 draw, the spotlight focused on Yuill in a best-of-three shootout.

After his team went up 1-0, the Grade 7 student watched with glee as the Eagles鈥 first shot rang off the post.

Following another Hurricanes goal for a 2-0 lead, Yuill stood tall as his opponent sailed a shot wide of the net 鈥 securing the victory for his squad.

鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty exciting that we won gold,鈥濃圷uill told the Star. 鈥淲e won silver in Grade 5 and in Grade 6, we made the playoffs, but lost 4-3 to the hardest team.鈥

Born with cerebral palsy, Yuill has been tending net for Holy Family for four years.

This was the first time he took to the net in his wheelchair. Prior to that, Yuill would sit on the ground in the butterfly position to stop pucks, saving shots with his knees and body.

He also wore a blocker and glove prior to his time in the wheelchair.

This time, he positioned his wheelchair sideways, and used a joystick to move back and forth in the crease.

鈥淯sually, they would hit one of my tires and an occasional shot would actually land in my seat, which was pretty funny,鈥 he said.

One of his tricks included placing his stick along the goal-line, forcing opponents to raise the soft puck for a goal 鈥 a tournament rule.

鈥淭hat way they couldn鈥檛 shoot under my chair,鈥 Yuill explained, noting the technique saved a shot that could have been the game-winner for Elijah Smith in the final.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just insanely awesome,鈥 he said of the victory, that sees him end his elementary hockey career a champion. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 even have the words to say what I felt like in the tournament. It was amazing.

鈥淭o be part of that team was phenomenal. We had such a great group of guys. We had three Grade 6s and the rest of us were Grade 7s. It was all-around just a blast.鈥

Yuill admitted he鈥檚 been in a shootout situation before. In Grade 5, he stoned one opponent using his goalie mask.

鈥淚t was crazy,鈥濃坔e chuckled at the recollection.

Volunteer coach Pat Berrel said his team finished second in round-robin play before playoffs, where they bounced 脡cole Whitehorse Elementary School 4-1.

鈥淭hroughout the tournament, we only lost one game,鈥濃圔errel said. 鈥淚t was quite a thing. The kids just went crazy. You see in the NHL, when the guys win the Stanley Cup and throw everything up in the air to go rush the goalie? Well, that鈥檚 what happened.

鈥淵ou couldn鈥檛 have made a story that had a better ending than this. It was fantastic.鈥

Yuill is a dedicated goaltender, Berrel said, regularly attending practice on Fridays after school.

A large cheering crowd included the winning goalie鈥檚 proud mom, Corinna Yuill.

鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing,鈥 she admitted. 鈥淚鈥坰aid: 鈥楲ucas, you鈥檝e just made history. You know that.鈥 It was pretty amazing for him, for sure.鈥

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