Whitehorse native Gavin McKenna has been named MVP of the Circle K Classic tournament.

McKenna led the South Alberta Hockey Academy to a 6-0 victory over the Calgary Buffaloes in the final of the tournament, formerly known as the Mac’s Midget tournament.

McKenna tallied six goals and eight assists in six games.

McKenna, of course, was selected first overall by the Medicine Hat Tigers in the last Western Hockey League (WHL) draft. He is the first Yukoner to be taken first overall in the WHL draft.

McKenna described what it was like to win the championship.

“It’s unbelievable to win with that group of guys. We stuck together the whole tournament and we won it as a family. It was awesome.”

As for winning the MVP, “It was obviously pretty cool,” said McKenna. “I couldn’t have done it without my line mates. They played amazing this weekend. And obviously just having good goaltending and defence behind us, behind me, I guess, just helped me perform to my best ability and yeah, I couldn’t have done it without my team behind my back.”

He was also named a First Allstar Team forward and Most Sportsmanlike player.

“Kade Duell, my line mate, had an amazing tournament. He was on the First Allstar Team as well … and Zach Zahara, he was named to the Second Allstar Team. So kudos to those guys. They had a great tournament as well.”

McKenna wasn’t sure why he won the Most Sportsmanlike award.

“I don’t know, to be honest. I guess I just didn’t have any penalties … pretty cool, though.

“There were a couple of times when guys were trying to get in my head. Whether it be like before the face-off, just giving me a whack on the shin pads or just trying to chirp me. But obviously, you got to just stay on your game and I just tried to block that out.”

McKenna said for the most part, he did a good job of not letting that affect his game.

SAHA ended up being the only undefeated team in the tournament.

“Our first game, against the Saskatoon Blazers, that was definitely one of our toughest games,” recalled Mckenna.

“They were a great team. We scored early. Our captain (Elias Eisenbarth) had a great game. He scored our first three goals. And then I had the last one and we came out with the win on that one, 4-2.

“Our second game was against the Calgary Northstars. It was in their home barn so we knew it was going to be a tougher game but we started off strong.” Mckenna assisted on the first goal and had two more assists in the game.

SAHA downed the Northstars 5-0.

“And then our next game was against the St. Louis (AAA) Blues … we had a tough start to the game. I think we were down 6-3 going into the third. We went into the room and we knew what we had to do to come out with the win and we knew that we just had to all stick together.”

They scored 15 seconds into the third period. “From there on we just kept on scoring,” related McKenna. The Blues tied it with six seconds left to send the game to overtime tied 7-7. Kade Duell had the game winner. He finished with six points in the game and McKenna added four. “So obviously it was a great game for both of us,” said McKenna.

Next up was a quarterfinal game against Yale Hockey Academy.

“Both teams were pretty tired, having played three games in three days, right after Christmas,” said McKenna. “We just knew what we had to do and we played good. We came up with a win of 4-0.” McKenna scored one goal in that game.

“The semifinal was against the Burlington Eagles, who I think had only let in three goals in the whole tournament leading up to this game,” recalled McKenna.

The game was close at first, with the Eagles scoring to cut the SAHA lead in half, 2-1. SAHA eventually came out on top 4-1.

McKenna scored two goals in the game. “Zahara, our goalie, he really was a big key to the success in that game. He kept us in it there,” said McKenna.

Then it was on to the much-anticipated finals and a packed house.

“We were we pretty much the villains because being from Calgary, they had the home crowd behind ‘em,” related McKenna. “We got off to a good start. We were up one-nothing in the first period.” Kade Duell scored, with McKenna drawing an assist.

“In the second period, we played amazing. We scored three goals in that period. From then on, we just kept pushing and kept pushing because we knew if they get one they’d be right back in it. And obviously Zahara again had a great game, kept us in it. We scored two more and pretty much just sealed the deal and there’s no better feeling than when we threw off our gloves. It was amazing. We worked the whole first half of the year to win that tournament. So it feels great for it to pay off.”

McKenna also participated in a charity hockey game in Whitehorse on Dec. 23.

“I haven’t played in front of a home crowd in Whitehorse for like, three, four years maybe. So just to play in front of family and friends and play with friends that I haven’t played with in however many years, it was awesome. It was great and obviously being such a great cause made it that much better.”

The game was in honour of Travis Adams and was in support of the Yukon Hospital Foundation. It featured a young team, including McKenna, against an older team of players. The final score was 9-6 for McKenna’s team.

“I think we were up 6-1 and then they started to come back. So we had to start trying again,” said McKenna. “It was definitely a good thing to have a game before this big tournament, just kind of get back in shape. I definitely used it as practice, I guess, so it was good. It was awesome to get a break and then get back into the big tournament.”

McKenna was home for 10 days.

Now it’s back to the grind for him.

“I’ll be playing with SAHA and (the) Tigers have a couple of injuries. So I’m guessing I’ll get in a few games with them coming up soon, so definitely gonna have to prepare for that.”

Because of injuries, McKenna got an extension on the amount of games he can play for the Tigers.

“I get to be an emergency call-up. I was originally supposed to have five but as of right now I have eight already played. I still have a few more.”

It’s not certain how many more games McKenna will play for the Tigers.

“It’s kind of tough to say. I can’t just get called up whenever. But if somebody’s injured, then I think I can get called up. So it all depends really.”

McKenna added he’s “just really proud of what the group of guys did this past weekend and coming out with that championship was amazing.”