NEWS FILE PHOTO
Medicine Hat U15AAA South East Athletic Club defenceman Madden Wright celebrates a goal in the bronze medal match of the 49th Hockey Hounds tournament in 2022 at the Hockey Hounds arena.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Hockey Hounds are ready to host and celebrate their 50th U15AAA tournament this weekend.
The local hockey staple is gearing up for the annual U15 tournament that will feature 16 teams from across Western provinces arriving in the Hat for a weekend of high-calibre minor hockey.
The 50th rendition comes a year later than expected due to the 2020 season being halted by COVID-19, pushing their annual tournament back a season. Now, with the milestone event days ahead, treasurer Dale Fuller says it’s both a special moment and just another tournament for them.
“At the games, we might see a little bit more enthusiasm but other than that, it’s just another tournament like the 49th was and the 51st will be,” Fuller said. “We don’t have really much of a difference in teams who are coming, we have a couple of new ones this year, but other than that, most of them are ones who have been coming for a number of years.”
That includes St. George’s, who have won four of the last five Hounds tournaments dating back to 2017. The tournament gets underway Thursday night and wraps up Sunday afternoon with the finals games. The games will take place at the Hockey Hounds arena, the Kinplex and the Moose, a return to the traditions of the first 48 years. The last two tournaments previously featured games at the Big Marble Go Centre.
Fuller says these tournaments would not be possible without their membership and volunteers. He says anyone interested in volunteering or joining the Hounds can reach out via their website.
“Thank God for volunteers because our membership is getting smaller and smaller and it’s not even just getting smaller, some of our members are a little bit more challenged to be able to do work,” Fuller said.
The Hounds say in the tournament’s program that more than 700 players who have taken part in the tournament were drafted to the WHL, with 26 going on to the NHL.
Fuller says the tournament, known for being a scouting opportunity for WHL teams, doesn’t have a Gavin McKenna-type player at the tournament, but there is a lot of good hockey to be watched.
“A lot of those players are playing academy hockey and we don’t have a lot of academies but you could get a player out of Prince Albert who is just a phenomenal player and get drafted out of there,” Fuller said. “Come and watch some good quality hockey.”
One of those teams providing the good, quality hockey will be the South East Athletic Club Tigers who look to build off their third-place finish in last year’s tournament.
SEAC head coach Mike Mueller, who was also behind the bench last year, says they’ll take it one game at a time and that this year’s team has some explosive scoring.
“We have some depth throughout our forward position, we solidified our goaltending with a kid out of Airdrie, Sasha Shushkov, who we took on,” Mueller said. “I don’t like comparing year to year because teams are different. But we have some strengths this year that will do us well going forward.”
The Tigers open their tournament Thursday at 8:30 p.m. against the Pilot Mound Buffalos at Kinplex. They face the Thompson Blazers (11 a.m., Kinplex 2) and Prince Albert Pirates (8 p.m., Moose) on Friday to finish the round robin.
SEAC enters the weekend with a 2-7-0-1 record but are coming off the high of a 5-4 OT win last Friday over the Lethbridge Val Matteoti Golden Hawks. He says the team is appreciative of the Hounds for organizing this year’s tournament and the 49 previous.
The significance of being the only local team in competition isn’t lost on his team.
“They understand the importance of the tournament, what it means to our club and what it means to our year going forward,” Mueller said. “This is definitely a big part of our year, so everyone understands the importance.”
