THUNDER BAY - For 11-year-old Rayne Bechard, who plays defense with the Thunder Bay Petrie Stars, a lot of great things happen when she laces up her skates and hits the ice to face down a forward racing into her end.
“I really enjoy hanging out with friends,” she said. “But I also really like the competition. I like the feeling you get when you hit the puck away and knowing it was up to you and you just did something right.”
Rayne was one of dozens of hockey players who participated in the 24th Annual Chill Hockey Tournament held in Thunder Bay. The four-day long tournament saw 33 teams from across Northwestern Ontario compete in five junior house league divisions, including novice, atom, peewee, bantam, and midget.
Hosted by the Thunder Bay Women’s Hockey Association, girls ranging in age from four to 17 competed against one another in what is the largest all-girl hockey tournament in Northern Ontario.
Kasey Etreni, chair of the Chill Tournament, said teams from Fort Frances, Kenora, Dryden, and Nipigon who may not otherwise have an opportunity to play in a tournament of this size travel to Thunder Bay to compete.
But for all the girls participating, it is an opportunity to play against other girls, which is not always an option for some players.
“It gives them the opportunity to play in a tournament and compete against other girls instead of trying to go into the boys tournaments,” Etreni said. “This is a house tournament which is a great opportunity for girls who play house league to play against each other and I think that’s why we get such a good response.”
“It highlights the girls,” added Chris Wiseman, coach of the Thunder Bay Petrie Stars. “There are so many co-ed tournaments that happen but this one puts the girls on a pedestal and lets them show their stuff and have fun.”
And fun is certainly the name of the game, which Wiseman said is obvious every time the girls step out onto the ice to play some very strong and competitive hockey.
“These girls just have a great time,” he said. “They have a smile on their face the whole time. It captures the true aspect of what we are trying to do here, just having fun, getting together and making friends on other teams.”
According to Etreni, the tournament has consistently strong participation from teams and players, as well as growing support from the community.
“We have had some great hockey,” she said. “We have had a lot of spectators out and we have had a lot of business support for our tournament this year. We have 36 businesses within our community who have helped us out. I’m really happy with the support we’ve had from the community.”
It also shows just how much support girls hockey has in the community, Etreni added, with volunteers largely consisting of past hockey players from the Queen’s program and midget players coming back to help out their fellow players because the tournament has been such an important part of their hockey lives.
“We’ve had girls crying in our lobby yesterday because they are no longer in the midget division, they graduated and are moving on and we’ve had parents in the lobby crying because they’ve come to the Chill Tournament for the last 10 years and they realize they are going to miss the opportunity to network and get together,” Etreni said.
Rayne, who was playing in her second Chill Tournament, said it is important because it provides girls with an opportunity to play hockey together, and make friendships both on and off the ice.
“It gives other people the opportunity to pursue your passion of playing hockey but you get to do it with your friends and make more friendships,” she said. “The teams are decently spread out player wise. It’s a lot of fun to play against your other teammates as well.”
