There was an all-weekend midget house league tournament held at the Chilton Regional Arena from Dec. 1-3.
The Port McNeill Whalers came out flying in the first game, hammering Port Alberni 12-2. The Whalers played again on Saturday against Nanaimo, this time falling 3-2, and then had another game against Nanaimo later that afternoon, losing 2-1. The Whalers collected enough points to play for fourth place against Nanaimo on Sunday morning, and it turned out to be another tough match up.
Nanaimo scored two goals early in the first period to go up 2-0, but the Whaler’s captain Kaisha Laird scored with 1:59 left on the clock to make it 2-1.
In the second period, Nanaimo started to heat up, scoring three unanswered goals to give them a 5-1 lead going into the third period.
The Whalers refused to lay down and quit. Ridell Wilson scored in front of the net at 7:00, and then Owen Jewell blasted the puck from the point past the Nanaimo goaltender, making the final score of the game 6-3 for Nanaimo.
The Whalers ended up placing fifth out of seven teams, but more important than that, they had an absolute blast getting to compete all weekend in front of a loud hometown crowd who came out to cheer them on for every single game.
