MINOT – Dreams came true for young skaters this past weekend at MAYSA Arena. Participants had the opportunity to play hockey against youth from nine different states, two Canadian provinces, and wear world recognized jerseys on the ice.
“The World Cup is an event we started in 2015 in the Twin Cities,” explained David Druk, Northland Hockey Group, Blaine, Minnesota. “We’d thought about having a tournament up here so people don’t have to travel to Denver or Minneapolis. Usually we have four teams in each age group but we had so much interest in the Squirts and Pee Wee that we added two more countries for six teams.”
The event began with players taking part in scrimmages last Friday, all under the watchful eye of coaches who later conducted a draft of players for Team USA, Canada, Slovakia, Germany, Finland, and Sweden. Following the draft players were issued replica jerseys from their assigned team.
“That’s the fun part, something different for the kids,” said Druk. “They are all proud of their jerseys.”
Druk said 80 players from Minot took part, along with 160-200 from beyond the city, including a player from as far away as Tennessee. Players were presented with gold, silver, or bronze medals for teams finishing first, second, or third. Players on teams finishing 4-6 were all awarded white medals.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Druk. “The Pepsi Arena here is a fantastic arena that is definitely the reason we are up here. You need two sheets of ice to do this.”
Many of the games were close, only a goal or two difference, even though there was a mixture of skill levels on the ice.
“Some of teams have some really top-notch “A” players, but there’s also kids that have played only a year or two of hockey,” said Druk. “Some kids get three or four goals but those are the kids that are tough to shut down anyway.”
A number of girls took part, skating regular shifts with and against the boys. With interest so high, the tournament may use MAYSA’s third sheet of ice for next year’s event.
“That’s quite possible,” said Druk. “We hold one of these in the Twin Cities in March and added this one in Minot in June.”
