After two tough games at the 2023 Canada Winter Games, the Yukon male hockey team bounced back with a better effort in a rematch with Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) yesterday with ninth place at stake.

Yukon got behind early again, with N.L.’s Noah Boland scoring 1:37 into the game and adding a second straight goal with 14:14 left in the period.

Captain Gavin McKenna answered quickly with a goal on a rebound just 14 seconds later to get Yukon on the board.

N.L. went up 3-1 with 9:23 left in the first on a point shot from Carter Bromley.

Yukon goalie Ashton Fummerton made a big point-blank save with a few minutes left in the frame to keep the game close.

The first period ended with N.L. up 3-1.

Yukon was showing a lot of spark in this one, as there was a big scuffle involving most of the players on both teams at the end of the period.

Just nine seconds into the second, a Yukon player hit the post.

Yukon drew closer with 13:36 left in the second when Jase Johnstone scored on a shot that barely trickled over the line. That prompted the N.L. coach to call a timeout.

That seemed to work, as N.L. started to pull away in the second period. Declan Kennedy scored with 11:50 left, then Ben O’Brien made it 5-2 with 3:15 left in the period. They added one more with 2:46 left in the second frame. The period ended 6-2 for N.L..

Of note, McKenna and Johnstone had a chat with the refs at the end of the period. Perhaps that helped in the third as they finally got a power play a few minutes into the period.

Johnstone pulled Yukon closer with a goal with 10:18 to go in the third.

However, Brody Harnum restored N.L.’s four-goal lead with 8:09 to go.

The game got rough again with 5:09 left, as a big skirmish broke out on the ice. No gloves were dropped however, and the game carried on.

In a classy move, Yukon coach Ken Anderson replaced Fummerton in goal with Sam Epp following the skirmish.

The final score in the competitive, feisty affair was N.L. 7, Yukon 3.

It was a brisk day out on the biathlon range, but Team Yukon kept warm by having an excellent day. Isla Hupé had the Yukon’s highest placing so far at these Games, placing fifth in the 10 km Individual Female race. Cheyenne Tirschmann came in 11th, Lydia Brown finished 18th and Stella Mueller finished 22nd.

Cole Germain, sixth, and Noah Marnik, ninth, also earned top-10 finishes in the shortened men’s individual race.

London Matthew came in 18th and Bruce Porter finished 23rd.

Gymnasts Olivia Vangel, Lilly Witten and Layla Hombert made the artistic all around competition and performed their beam, bars, floor and vault routines. Witten, Vangel and Hombert finished 33rd, 34th and 35th, respectively.

In short track speed skating, Lisa Freeman won her quarterfinal race in the 500 metres and finished fourth in her finals race, ending up 24th overall.

Lucas Taggart-Cox also won his quarterfinal in the 500 metres and finished second in his finals race. He ended up 26th overall.

He finished third in his 1000 metre preliminary yesterday and is continuing in that discipline today.

In squash, in the Female Team competition, Keely Kovac, Kyla Kurzynski, Sandy Nagarajan and Georgia Rogers-Atkinson lost matches by identical 4-0 scores to Manitoba in the Preliminaries and Newfoundland and Labrador in the 9th-12th Consolation round. They continue play today against N.W.T. and New Brunswick.

In Male Team competition, Rannon Johnson, Charles Gagne, Forrest Peshke and Devon Rayment fell 4-0 to Quebec in the preliminaries and 4-0 to N.L. by identical 4-0 scores.

The female curling team of Whitney Kasook, Taylor Legge, Dannika Mikkelsen and Neizha Snider lost a close one to what seems to be becoming the bane of Yukon’s existence, Newfoundland and Labrador, 9-5 in a placement game.

The table tennis squad began their singles competition. Krish Sharma almost downed his PEI opponent but fell 3-2. He continued his strong play against Saskatchewan, breaking through for a 3-0 victory. Sharma lost a Stage 2 game, but bounced back for two victories against N.W.T. opponents in the Placement round.

Victor Li had a tough day yesterday, but bounced back today with a 3-1 victory against N.W.T. this morning.

In girls’ action, Melody Qiu had a tough time, dropping all three of her matches, including a hard-fought game against New Brunswick, 3-1.

Kalie Bennett also fell in all three matches.

The only Yukon team not in action was the freestyle ski team. They had a practice day as they prepared for moguls.

– With files from a Team Yukon press release.