The Philippine Online Chronicles

The seventh day of the 2010 Grande Prairie Arctic Winter Games featured the concluding stages of the team sports competitions. There were many exciting matches in the semifinals that allowed for some of the heavily favored teams to be eliminated prematurely giving their strong preliminary round showing but the knock out nature of the phase made the competition for interesting and exciting.

Basketball

In men’s basketball, Team Alberta North was able to wrest the gold medal from the hands of Team Northwest Territories as the host contingent won the gold in convincing fashion; 72-57. It was a smaller margin of victory compared to the 91-66 win that Alberta North was able to get in the preliminaries but it was enough to secure the top spot for the competition. Dillon Kramps led Alberta North with 21 points. It was all Team Alberta North all the way as they were able to come up with the higher points total after each quarter.

In the bronze medal game, Team Yukon was able to overcome Team Alaska; 82-56. It was a minor upset of sorts since Alaska was the second seed going into the knock out stages and the American were able to beat Yukon 69-64 in the preliminaries. Logan Boehmer led the scoring for Yukon as he scored 27 points. He also hit an impressive total of six three point shots. Logan Gray scored 18 points as well as Yukon’s second leading scorer. Alaska was actually ahead 31-25 at halftime before Yukon unleashed a monsted 31-9 run in the third quarter that saw Boehmer score 14 points including four three point shots.

Logan Boehmer can take some solace in the fact that despite that Yukon only took home the bronze medal, he was the leading scorer for the tournament. Boehmer had 119 points over six games to average almost 20 points per contest. Teammate Logan Gray also had a strong run scoring 112 points during the entire tournament. Rounding out the top five were Jacob Sullivan with 96 points and Jessee Brake with 90 points (both from Northwest Territories) and Jared Laws from Alaska who had 86. Dillon Kramps was the highest scoring player from Team Alberta North with 85.

The women’s team from Alberta North were able to make it two-for-two in basketball as they defeated the Northwest Territories; 75-66. Top seed Alaska was knocked out by Northwest Territories but they had no answer for Alberta North’s Kelsey Lund. Lund scored 17 of her team’s 28 points in the fourth quarter to erase a 47-53 deficit at the end of the third quarter. The entire Northwest Territories squad could only watch Lund outscore them as they only managed to come up with 13 points. Northwest Territories’ Skylar Urschel who was instrumental against Alaska in the semifinals scored a team high 26 points but was unable to score more than 5 points in the final quarter.

The bronze medal was won by Alaska after they defeated Yukon; 60-46. Team Alaska was lead by Taylor Winchester who came off the bench to score 18 points. Yukon struggled with their offense all game long as they only managed to score a maximum of 14 points in a quarter.

Northwest Territories Skylar Urschel finished the tournament atop the scorer’s list with 136 points total over the entire tournament. This puts her at an average production of almost 23 points per game. She would have sure preferred to take home the gold instead of the silver but this individual accolade is also something to be proud of. Alberta North’s Kelsey Lund was the only other player to breach the century mark. She scored 118 points for an average of just under 20 points per game.

Ice Hockey

For the women’s category, Team Alberta North emerged as the Arctic Winter Games champions after winning a defensive-oriented game against Yukon; 2-0. Desi Wallah and Charity Price scored a goal each for the host contingent with Chelsea Broadhead, Darcy Grenier and Allie Wallah registering assists. Alberta North never lost a match during the entire tournament.

The bronze medal was easily won by Alaska as they trounced Northwest Territories 6-1 in the battle for third. Zoe Kurth scored the last three goals of the match. Brianne Bohn also scored a goal and issued an assist for Alaska. The lone goal for Northwestern Territories was scored by team captain Brooke Taylor-Payne.

Chantelle Rivest of the silver-medal-winning Team Yukon had the most points in the tournament. She had a total of 12 points divided equally between 6 goals and 6 assists. Zoe Kurth finished with the most number of goals at 10 (no one was even above 6). Kurth also had an assist to make her total 11 points for the tournament. Aimee Lynne Wallan of the Arctic Winter Games Champions Alberta North squad had 10 points with five coming by way of goals and five from assists.

In the midget category for boys, Team Alaska prevented the continuation of Team Alberta North’s golden run in ice hockey. The Americans executed masterfully as they scored a 6-3 victory over Alberta North. Alaska tried to blow the game wide open early in the first quarter. Alaska scored three goals within the first six minutes of action. Alberta North then countered with 6:06 remaining via a goal from Dylan Squires to cut the deficit to 3-1. Alaska then scored another goal with 2:57 remaining. Alberta North then retaliated immediately twenty seconds later to make the score 4-2 at the end of a quarter. Only three more goals were to be scored the rest of the way and two of them were scored by Alaska. Six different players scored for Alaska. Aside from scoring a goal himself, Joe Reynolds issued two assists in the game.

Nunavut – who defeated gold medallists Alaska convincingly in the preliminaries 5-2 – won their bronze medal match against Yukon. Wendel Kaludjak scored the first three goals of the game and that set the tone for the 6-1 drubbing that Nunavut meted out.

The top three slots of the points ladder for the tournament were held by three players from Nunavut. Wendel Kaludjak had 9 goals and 4 assists over the course of the tournament to finish with 13 points. Roger Ungangai Tagoona had 9 goals and 2 assists for 11 total. Johnny Nicholas Kilabuk had 8 points broken down to 3 goals and 5 assists. The top scorer from the gold medallists was Logan Miller who finished with three goals and four assists for seven points total.

The bantam male category was a story of upsets during the semifinals and the crowd that gathered to watch the final two matches were certainly looking forward to some great matches. Team Northwest Territories were able to repeat their preliminary round win over Nunavut 7-2 in the gold medal match. It was a rough road for the team from Northern Canada but they’ll be more than willing to go through the tough semifinal and final matches just to win the gold again. Curtis German and Nathan John Denroche scored two goals each for Northwest Territories.

The home town crowd had a little consolation when Team Alberta North defeated Alaska to the score of 5-1 in the bronze medal match. Alberta North team captain Cole Wiebe scored two goals in the game. The hosts scored three goals in the opening quarter and never looked back. The win avenges the match that Alberta North lost to Alaska in the preliminaries with a score of 3-0.

Alberta North team captain Cole Wiebe led the tournament in points and assists. He finished with 15 points, 10 assists and 5 goals. Kevin Johnstan Yasinski had six goals with six assists for a total of 12 points. Team Nunavut’s Colton Graham had 12 points total with four goals and eight assists.

Indoor Football

There were five gold medals up for grabs in the event and the gold medallists really had to go through tough tests to deserve to top prize and the highest position on the medal podium.

In the intermediate women’s divison, Team Sapmi failed to secure a gold medal when they fell in the final match against Team Alaska. Sapmi was a dominant squad during the preliminary rounds who won their four matches. Alaska had an ace in the hole as they scored an upset 5-4 victory. Ashley Soto of Alaska scored three goals while Nicole Vannie had two. Team Alaska lost to Sapmi 3-4 in the preliminary round robin.

The bronze medal for the division went to Northwest Territories who defeated their next door neighbours Nunavut in Northern Canada. The Northwestern Territories scored three goals to Nunavut’s one.

Ashtyn Hailey McLeod of Northwest Territories led the tournament with 9 goals. Alaskan players Nicole Alexandria Vannia and Casey Coupchiak followed the list with 8 and 7 goals; respectively. Kristian Cesilie Hansen of Sapmi also had 7 goals.

In the junior male division for soccer, Greenland scored three goals to Team Alberta North’s two to claim the gold medal. Greenland entered the knock out phases as the ultimate underdog being ranked fourth out of the seeded teams. Greenland was able to knock off Yukon in the semifinals. Greenland reversed the 2-3 result of the round robin loss to the host contingent. Svensen Inooraq scored two goals in the gold medal match.

Yukon salvaged some pride as they narrowly defeated Northwest Territories 3-2. Walker Ewing scored all three goals for Yukon. Yukon goes home with the bronze medal.

Bronze medallist Walker Ewing of Yukon had 11 goals for the entire tournament. Ryan McNally of Alberta North had 10 goals to his name.

The junior female tournament was reminiscent of what happened in the men’s division, the fourth seeded team won the gold over the higher ranked teams. Team Alaska claimed the gold after beating Northwest Territories 2-1 in the final match. Alaska was able to make up for an earlier 3-1 beating that they took against the Northwest Territories during the round robin.

The bronze medal was won by the host delegation Alberta North. The team won 3-2 against Team Yukon. Kristi Ann Decker scored 11 goals for Alberta North to lead the competition in goals scored. Northwest Territories player Sarah Cannell scored 10 goals while Melissa Skan of the Arctic Winter Games champion squad Alaska had 9 for the competition.

The juvenile male category featured the teams from Yamal-Nenets and Yukon duking it out for the gold medal. Yamal-Nenets managed to win handily 4-1 against a Yukon team that knocked off the top seeded team in the tournament. Almaz Fattakhov had two goals for Yamal-Nenets. The gold medallists previously beat Team Yukon 2-0 during the preliminary matches.

The bronze medal went to Alberta North after they defeated Greenland 1-0 in the bronze medal match. Greenland seemed to be still reeling from the bitter defeat in the semifinals in the hands of Yukon.

The leading scorer of the tournament was Jackson Lehnhart of Alaska whose team only finished sixth out of the seven teams in the competition. Lehnhart scored 13 goals in just 6 games. Almaz Fattakhov of Arctic Winter Games champion Yamal-Nenets scored 11 in the tournament.

The juvenile female division saw Team Alaska defeating Team Alberta North 3-2 in the battle for the gold medal. Alberta North demolished the Alaskans 10-3 in the preliminary round but Alaska managed to pull off the victory and turn the tables on the heavy favorites. All three goals scored by Alaska were kicked in by Elizabeth Gogolowski.

Team Northwest Territories came away with the bronze medal as they win over the team from Yukon 4-3. Zoe Shea Guile scored three of the four goals scored by Northwest Territories. The best efforts of Camille Galloway were not enough to push the Yukon team over the hump.

Alaska’s Elizabeth Gogolowski did not just win the gold medal for Alaska; she was also far and away the best striker in the competition. She scored 17 goals – a record for any division in the 2010 Arctic Winter Games. Madison Robak of Alberta North scored 11 goals.

Team Alaska swept all the gold medals for the female divisions. Alberta North won the most medals at four but the hosts ultimately failed to win a gold medal.

Volleyball

There were only two gold medals for volleyball and both were hotly contested.

For the men’s division, Team Alberta North clinched the gold medal after winning two close sets against the mighty Yukon team 25-21, 25-22. Alberta North’s win was a repeat of the three-set victory that the hosts had over Yukon during the preliminary round.

The bronze medal match went to three sets and saw Team Nunavut eking out a win over Northwest Territories. Nunavut dropped the first set 18-25 but managed to win two straight sets by closing out strong at 25-22, 15-13.

The women’s division was dominated by Team Alaska from start to finish. The Americans never dropped a set in the entire competition and for the gold medal match, Alaska only allowed 21 points for Team Yukon 25-12, 25-9.

The bronze medal was won in straight sets by Alberta North as they trounced Nunavut 25-19, 25-11.

The complete results to the team sports results including the other athletic disciplines showcased at the 2010 Grande Prairie Arctic Winter Games can be seen at the official GEMS pro site. There are even actual hand written score sheets that have been scanned for viewing.

Relive the Arctic Winter Games

Intro | Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Finale

Photo by Xander.