In the last two days of the 2018 Arctic Winter Games, team sport action is heating up with the playoffs and finals set for today and Saturday.

This morning, the Yukon junior male volleyball team dropped a tough five-set thriller to the Northwest Territories in the semifinals. The team was up two sets to one before dropping the fourth set 25-18. In the tiebreaker fifth set to 15 points, the Northwest Territories got out to a quick 10-1 lead and didn’t look back winning 15-4.

The Yukon squad will now play for the bronze medal this evening against either Alberta North or Nunavut. The team finished the round robin in second spot with four wins and only one loss to Alberta North.

The Yukon female volleyball team will be playing in the semifinals this afternoon against Alaska. As the third seed, the Yukon team finished the round robin with three wins and two losses, including a loss to Alaska.

In hockey, the midget male team dropped a tight semifinal to the number one ranked team from Nunavut Thursday morning. The Yukon team was looking to get their first win of the tournament and headed to a shootout against Nunavut, but were unable to come away with the win losing 3-2.

The junior female hockey team will be fighting for bronze this evening against Alberta North after dropping their semifinal 5-0 to Alaska.The bantam male team failed to qualify for the playoffs finishing 0-4 in the round robin.

Futsal action is starting to heat up with playoffs starting today and finals wrapping up the Games on Saturday.

The intermediate female squad booked their spot in the Saturday final winning three games and only dropping one in the round robin.

The junior female team will be taking on the Northwest Territories in the semifinals this afternoon.

The junior male team will be playing for bronze this afternoon after dropping their semifinal match this morning against Greenland.

In basketball, both the male and female teams will be competing for bronze today. The junior female squad lost to the Northwest Territories in the 2nd vs 3rd place semifinal game by a score of 58-44. They will be up against Nunavut for bronze. On the male side, the Yukon lost to Alaska in the semifinal 85-60 to set up another bronze medal showdown with Nunavut.

MEDAL MOMENTS: Although dropping to second place in the medal standings behind Alaska, Thursday was another successful day for the Yukon team at the Games. The territory now has 79 total medals – 26 gold, 21 silver and 27 bronze.

In cross-country skiing, the junior female and juvenile male teams took gold in the classic relay. The juvenile female and midget female teams won silver.

The juvenile female race was only separated by 10 seconds, losing to the team from Sápmi.

The Yukon won three medals in individual wrestling led by Cassi Jensen and Judy Russell who both won gold. The two wrestlers went undefeated in the 55 kg and 65 kg female categories respectively. Male wrestler Jonathan Racine won silver in the male 60 kg division.

Snowboarder Riley Boland picked up her fourth medal of the Games, winning an ulu in every single juvenile female snowboard event. She took the silver in the snowboard cross race.

The Yukon team continued their success on the speedskating track with Caius Taggart-Cox picking up a gold in the 400-metre race. Lisa Freeman picked up her third straight ulu of the Games finishing in second spot in the juvenile female race. Micah Taggart-Cox now has an ulu in every colour winning a silver in the junior male 777-metre race to pick up his third medal.

The speedskating team is back on the ice one last time today for the long-distance 1,500-metre races and the team relays.

The AWG wrap up Saturday with final medal events in badminton, futsal, volleyball and the closing ceremonies.