Combined Fort Smith-Hay River team wins West Ed Mall tourney

When Melissa Johns found out about the Ice Palace Showdown at the West Edmonton Mall, she was excited but had a problem to solve.

Johns is the U15 division manager for Fort Smith Hawks minor hockey – which doesn’t have a goalie, or enough players to enter that kind of tournament.

So Johns called the Hay River Huskies, and the upshot was four Hay River players (including a goalie) joining Fort Smith to form a combined team for the past weekend’s event.

Together, the players from the two communities – combined population 6,000 – won the Showdown, which also featured teams from Calgary, Fort McMurray and Saskatoon.

After defeating Saskatoon Wild Storm 8-2 for the title, the players were each presented with a novel memento: a championship ring rather than the usual medal.

“They got these killer rings, a legit championship ring that probably weighs half a pound,” Johns told Cabin Radio after the tournament on Sunday.

“It was so fun because they don’t play together, of course, but they just came together and worked hard. It was amazing to watch.”

While the NWT players found the West Edmonton Mall ice a little soft, the venue’s atmosphere more than made up for that. The mall bills itself as the largest in North America.

The tournament was “100-percent in the middle of West Edmonton Mall, filled with spectators – tons of people,” said Johns.

“The energy was amazing. Very different than being in the old barn in Fort Smith. Grandparents showed up from the area that drove to come watch grandchildren play. We had a huge cheering section.”

Bowan Kent, a Fort Smith 14-year-old on the team, enjoyed the presence of so many spectators.

“In Fort Smith, there’s not really many people watching or anything. It was great to have all these people watching us. It was really fun,” Kent said after Sunday’s final.

Asked how he felt about his championship ring, he said: “It’s better than just a medal, you know?”

Kent thanked Johns and the team’s coaches, Nathan Snell and Corey Koidhis, for the opportunity.

For Johns, the Showdown represented a climax for the team after years of problems with Fort Smith’s arena and the disruption of not only the pandemic, but also 2023’s wildfire evacuation.

She said those events had interrupted routines and limited access to training and tournaments like this one.

The weekend wasn’t without occasional hitches. For example, Johns said, some parents of players on other teams were so taken aback by the size advantage of the NWT players that organizers ended up asking for the players’ ID to be sure of their age.

“They wanted proof that our kids were in the right division, because they’re visibly larger than some of these other kids,” John said.

“I told one of the dads: ‘Listen, we eat moose meat and we eat bannock. That might be why our kids are bigger than yours.'”

But she added any tension between teams rapidly dissolved once it became apparent that the Fort Smith and Hay River athletes had come so far to compete.

“When they realized we travelled 1,400 km to come play hockey at West Edmonton Mall, I think they had a different appreciation for us,” she said.

“Would I do it again? One hundred percent, we would be back in a heartbeat.”