The Northwest Territories’ midget and bantam hockey teams won gold on Friday at the Arctic Winter Games, but the women’s team and both basketball teams missed out.
Success for the territory’s team sports in Friday’s finals was divided along community lines.
In Hay River, the midget hockey team held on to beat Nunavut 2-1 through goals from Ben Carson and Huirliel Deranger, after the bantam team beat Alberta North 4-3 for gold with goals from Declan Munro, Tyler Caines, Carter McLeod and Alex Cordero.
However, in Fort Smith, the junior female team ended up narrowly beaten 3-2 by Alaska despite two goals from Anna MacCara.
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Meanwhile, both basketball teams were also denied gold by Alaska at Fort Smith’s recreation centre. The female team lost 87-80 while the male team lost 62-60, coming within one shot of victory as Patrick Yatco’s valiant attempted three-pointer with three seconds remaining failed to drop.
Those results mean the NWT has still never won both male and female basketball gold at the same Games. The boys won gold in 2014 while the girls have yet to become Arctic Winter Games champions in the event’s history.
Elsewhere, Veronica McDonald cemented her status as Team NT’s outstanding athlete of the Games by adding the all-around Arctic Sports title, her fourth of the week. In speed skating, Braeden Picek won the junior male 1500m title before helping the territory’s relay team to gold later on Friday.
Action has now finished in Fort Smith, while futsal is among the sports still going in Hay River before Saturday’s closing ceremony rounds off proceedings.
