Whitehorse Daily Star

Image title

Photo by Marcel Vander Wier

BRAND-NEW SEASON – Nacho Nyak Dun DC forward Justin Saunders tries to get around Roadhouse defender Violeta Azizaj while goalie Aedan Greer looks on during the final of the Bob Park Icebreaker Broomball Tournament.

Image title

Photo by Marcel Vander Wier

FAMILIAR FOES – Roadhouse’s Mike Wintemute, left, battles with Nacho Nyak Dun DC’s John Tom Tom, right, for a loose ball during Sunday afternoon’s championship final.

Bob Park broomball tournament decided in OT

For the second straight year, a father-son duo helped Nacho Nyak Dun DC win the Bob Park Icebreaker Broomball Tournament.

By Marcel Vander Wier on November 25, 2014

For the second straight year, a father-son duo helped Nacho Nyak Dun DC win the Bob Park Icebreaker Broomball Tournament.

Chris Saunders and his son, Justin Saunders, both scored in Sunday’s finale to help Nacho defeat Roadhouse 2-1 in overtime at Takhini Arena.

Justin Saunders’ game-winner came shortly into a five-minute extra period of four-on-four action with no goalies.

The goal helped Nacho retain its tournament title from last year, when they also beat Roadhouse 2-1.

“Dad’s really good. John’s (Tom Tom) really good,” the younger Saunders said of his club’s continued success. “Dad and John have probably played 29 years together and they’re good. That helps.”

With six minutes left in the game, Chris Saunders finally opened the scoring when his slapshot from near the left faceoff dot beat Roadhouse goalie Aedan Greer over the shoulder.

The play started with a no-look behind-the-back pass from James MacDonald to Justin Saunders, who sifted it over to his father.

The 1-0 lead looked like it would stand up until Roadhouse forward Kaleb Dawe drew a tripping penalty on Justin Saunders with 1:42 left in the game.

Following a timeout, Roadhouse pulled their goalie for a six-on-four advantage and quickly knotted things up when Dawe buried a shot over Nacho goalie Tim MacIntosh’s glove hand following passes from Mike Wintemute and Melanie Lachapelle.

In overtime, it was Roadhouse who applied the early pressure, but some timely saves from Nacho defender Pauline Frost helped bide some time for Justin Saunders to strike.

“You know that whatever happens, the goal’s going to be a pretty easy goal,” the sniper said of OT. “It’s great, but it’s also pretty crazy when you see they had three or four chances early in overtime.”

Josh Holmes, a new face among the Nacho faithful, said the tournament made for a fun weekend.

Still relatively new to broomball, Holmes said it is harder to play than it looks.

“It is very difficult to play if you don’t pay attention to what you should be doing out there,” he said. “But it comes down to goalies. If you have a good goalie, you can go far.”

The Nacho squad gelled quickly, he added, which helped them achieve success.

For the second straight year, Roadhouse failed to hoist the Bob Park trophy after a stellar tournament.

The team worked hard to neutralize the Saunders boys and Nacho’s outside shooters.

“That’s the key,” said Greer. “You’ve got to get in Justin’s head and shut down their outside shooters.

“For me, being the goalie, it was kind of sad to see the overtime not include me,” he added. “But I thought we had them there.”

Other members of the winning Nacho team included: Timothy Laboucan, Charles McLeod, Suki Sidhu, Paul Martin, Pret Sidhu, Leah McLeod, Roxy Stasyszyn, Amy Kolfer and Jeremy Beebe.

A total of nine teams competed in the three-day weekend tournament.

Besides the two finalists, other teams hitting the ice were The Ridge, the Spectrum Bears, Yukon Thunder, P&M Recycling, Capital Towing, Yukon Brewing and the Dental Donkeys.

The tournament honours the late Bob Park, a high-scoring broomball phenom who died in 2006.

While Greer never knew Park, he said the tournament has always been a special one for the Roadhouse squad, named after the now-defunct sports bar Park owned.

Roadhouse player Gibson Pearson donned Park’s retired No. 10 jersey for the weekend tournament.

League president Milford Allain said temperature-permitting, league play will get underway this weekend.

The Yukon Broomball Association is also hoping to send a Yukon squad to the national championships in Montreal April 8 to 11.

Interested players can contact him at milf.allain@gmail.com.

Be the first to comment

Add your comments or reply via Twitter @whitehorsestar

In order to encourage thoughtful and responsible discussion, website comments will not be visible until a moderator approves them. Please add comments judiciously and refrain from maligning any individual or institution. Read about our user comment and privacy policies.

Your name and email address are required before your comment is posted. Otherwise, your comment will not be posted.