Over the weekend the Centre des Loisirs des Draveurs in Fort-Coulonge was packed for the first minor hockey tournament the arena has hosted in many years.
Tournament organizer and Fort-Coulonge Minor Hockey President Paul Boisvert said the organization decided to put on a tournament for its recently created U21 team. Attracting 10 teams, mainly from the Montreal area, he said it was good to have minor hockey in the arena again.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a tournament here in, it’s probably been 20 years since we had one in Fort-Coulonge,” he said. “We started last year at the end of the season to plan everything, to be able to get it going this year. We have 10 teams in the tournament so for a start, it’s OK.”
Boisvert estimated that he had around 15 volunteers keeping things running smoothly throughout. He added that it was nice for the community to have a minor hockey tournament back at the hometown arena.
“Our team really appreciates that part of it, being able to have a home tournament,” he said. “It’s also good for the municipality, it brings everyone around to the arena too.”
The hometown Fort-Coulonge U21 Comets were playing in the Junior C division and finished the weekend with one tie and two losses.
Comets’ assistant coach Maxime Asselin said that despite the tough games, the team played well throughout the tournament.
“We could have won a couple games but the bounces didn’t go in our favour,” he said. “We played as a team, we stayed disciplined, we kept our structure and the boys really played great this weekend.”
He said that having games on the team’s home turf was a nice change from playing on the road.
“Usually we have to travel to Gatineau, Hull, Buckingham for a game, so having a tournament in Coulonge, it was nice to play in front of our fans,” he said.
Boisvert said that any funds raised would be going towards keeping their minor hockey fees affordable. A Lane Hutson Canadiens jersey, donated by Construction Morin et Fils Inc. as well as two hockey sticks were raffled off during the tournament as well.
“Thank you to everybody, all our sponsors, because without them we couldn’t have a tournament,” he said.
