Four of Hay River’s minor  hockey players have made the cut to represent the Northwest Territories during next month’s Canada Winter Games.
Carter Hill, Joel Demarcke, Gavin Broadhead and Connor Goudreau all excelled during the last few months at a training camp in Yellowknife, making it to the top 20 players selected.
Hill, Demarcke and Danny Chambers all made the trip up to Yellowknife from Hay River, hoping to make the final cut.

They worked hard refining their skills from their arrival to Yellowknife in September, and both Hill and Demarcke will not be returning home until after the games take place in February.
Carter’s mother, Tracy, is very excited for the boys, who she says are getting to live a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“We are very, very excited,” she said of Carter making the team.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these boys, for them to be able to take part in this.”
She said that her family has their tickets booked for the CWG, as they will be making the trip out to Halifax to cheer on not only Carter, but all of the boys representing the Northwest Territories.
“These boys have worked very hard for the last four and a half months,” she said, “And we are very proud of all of them. We cannot wait to be able to watch and cheer on Team NWT at the Canada Winter Games in Halifax next month.”
Joel’s mother Tiffany is equally as proud of the boys and all they have accomplished in the last few months.
“I am proud of him, excited for him,” she said of Joel. “It is a good accomplishment.”
Joel’s family will also be making the trip out to Halifax, and will be staying there for the duration of the games to cheer on the boys.
“We will be leaving for the whole week,” she said. “We will even be there for the opening ceremony.”
She said that Joel has made it home on the occasional weekend and was able to make it home for Christmas, but she still anxious for him to come home.
“I cannot wait until they get back,” she said.
But the boys have a long road ahead of them before they can return home.
The men’s hockey games will kick off on Saturday, Feb. 12, and carry on throughout the week.
“They just need to keep trying hard and play their best,” said Tiffany.
Attempts to reach the Chambers were unsuccessful as of press time.

A Hay River weekend of fun, food and some extra-challenging sport was on the menu for hockey players in the mid-season Minor Hockey Association Christmas Jamboree from Saturday, December 19 to Sunday, December 20.

From initiation to midget divisions, the players worked hard in a mix of scrimmages and games within divisions and also across divisions. There was also a get-together in Doug Wieterman Hall above the rink for each division throughout the Jamboree with pizza parties, hot dogs, oranges, hot chocolate and desserts for the players and their families.
“Before everyone goes away on Christmas holidays, they can just get together and have fun. They try to catch everyone before they go away,” said Al Buth, a hockey dad at the jamboree.
“It basically started as an opportunity for kids to do something that’s different than all the practices,” said Sabrina Broadhead, past president of Hay River Minor Hockey, “and also a way to celebrate Christmas.”
“This way they can all get together and see their buddies before (some of them) go away,” she said. “We’re in our fourth or fifth year now. It’s actually pretty popular; the kids really enjoy it.”
The midget division also practiced for the Arctic Winter Games territorial trials. In the South Slave region, including Fort Smith and Hay River, there are few enough players that a regional trial is unnecessary, since only seventeen players would be chosen from them to continue on to the territorial trials.
“We don’t have to have (regional) trials, all the kids have direct entry into the territorials,” pointed out Broadhead.
In place of the regionals, the midgets played games and performed drills at the jamboree that would resemble those they would have experienced, and which they will need to be prepared for in the territorial trials. People who have been involved with hockey camps before offer their time to work with the players.
In inter-divisional games, players had to raise the bar as they competed at a higher level of play with older players.
“It was really competitive, because we had hard opponents,” said atom-division player Johnathan “J.J.” Frise, who played against a pee wee group on Saturday. “It was really long and tiring.”
About playing the inter-divisional game, Nick Buth from pee wees commented “It’s actually kind of weird because we got beaten by them (the atoms). In the shootout, we won.”
They had scrimmages and shootouts with the older players.
“It was fun. I scored one goal in the shootout,” said Brad Belanger.
“And in the shootout I scored two goals,” said Frise, who is on the same team as Belanger, but a year higher.
To pick up the pace, they also opened up the ice in four-on-four play against each other.
“It’s a challenge. It’s about learning to play the game at a faster pace,” said Broadhead.
The pee wees were challenged in a game against bantams as well.
“They were a lot harder and they kept getting a lot of breakaways,” said pee wee goalie Tristan Cross.
“It was kind of hard. It is more faster,” said Jordan Schumann.
The organizers attempted to balance the skill levels of the players whenever numbers permitted, to step up difficulty by age difference but without having one team thoroughly vanquish the other.
Overall the event brings families together and is a fun and very challenging way to play hockey.
“We had fun, but I was the one who mostly got the puck. They were pretty fast,” said Frise, “It was kind of hard, and fun.”
I’ve been playing hockey for five years now and my older brother has been playing for four,” he said, then admitting “he’s a bit better than me.”
It is also an effective way to bring a team closer as they face the challenges of the jamboree.
“It’s awesome,” said Buth, “Good team building.”
The Arctic Winter Games’ territorial trials for midgets will be held in Yellowknife in January, while the bantam division territorials will be held in Hay River.