Organized by PHS physical education teacher Darcy Findlay, the tournament was about giving local hockey players an opportunity to compete in a friendly atmosphere while raising money for the school’s hockey program and physical education department.

“It’s just about updating some stuff that we have and trying to get a new hockey program up and running and build something that, moving forward we don’t have these huge expenses,” he said.

Findlay said his initial goal was to raise enough money to purchase a new set of socks and jerseys for the program.

But thanks to a great contribution from the community, including four local sponsors, the program was able to purchase even more than it bargained for.

“We’ve raised probably $3,500 just in donations from local businesses, which allowed us to buy new jerseys – home and away,” he said.

“They helped me with a really good chunk of money,” he added. “We’ve also had individual donations of smaller amounts to help us pay for ice time and actually allow a couple of kids to play for free. That was really nice.”

Findlay said that his goal is to eventually cut overall costs on travel, ice time and registration for the students to make the program as accessible as possible.

“We have players who play for free. We have one student who doesn’t play regular minor hockey at all, but is playing high school hockey,” he said. “It’s nice to provide them with those opportunities that they wouldn’t necessarily have, after school or on weekends, whether it’s financially or just time-wise.”

As a physical education teacher at his old stomping grounds – where he also played high school hockey – Findlay said he prides himself on fostering a vibrant hockey program at PHS.

Knowing the task presents a long list of barriers, he felt blessed to see so many people in the community offering support.

“I look back to whenever I was in high school,” he said. “We were the first ones to have high school hockey… they started up a great program. It slowly dwindled away a little bit. But that happens. It takes time, people and it takes a lot of money too. That’s why we’re fortunate to have all of these people willing to play this weekend to raise money.”

Whether they’re big or small, Findlay believes hockey tournaments and fundraisers are very beneficial for communities because they bring people together to enjoy themselves while supporting a good cause.

“We decided on four teams and we stuck to it,” he said. We only wanted the first 44 players … it’s small and those are just as good as the big ones. “We’re in, we’re out. Guys have fun with each other. It’s still competitive because that’s just natural for a lot of these players, but it’s more about the cause.”

Taking place over two days, the tournament began with a draft, on Friday evening, where the respective captains of each team selected their roster among the list of 44 registered players.

Findlay explained that implementing a draft was an effort to add a little more spice to the tournament.

“It’s different,” he said. “You don’t know who you’re playing with when you register. You pay and it’s a crapshoot.”

Featuring four teams, two of them (Pontiac White and Pontiac Black) had the opportunity to be the first to wear the brand new PHS Panthers threads. The other two teams were represented by local businesses Billy T’s Pizza and Hursty’s Bar and Grill respectively.

The tournament consisted of a round-robin, followed by a knockout stage where each team was guaranteed to play three games.

After the first round, Billy T’s were eliminated after losing two of three games with a minus-seven goal differential, landing them at the bottom of the standings.

Pontiac Black earned the top seed and a bye to the finals, with two wins and a plus-seven goal differential.

In the lone-semi-final matchup, the number two and three seeds (Hursty’s and Pontiac White) battled it out, to clinch a berth in the championship game.

When it was all said and done, Pontiac White won it all after knocking off Pontiac Black in the final game, earning the right to lift the tournament’s big trophy.

On top of sponsorships, the tournament raised around $1,000 for PHS’ hockey program, Findlay said.

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