The Trail U18 Smoke Eaters hosted an eight team tournament at the Trail Memorial Centre and Beaver Valley Arena on the weekend.
In addition to host Trail, teams from as far away as Terrace and Nanaimo joined Cranbrook, Castlegar, West Kelowna, Winfield, and Penticton in the fray.
The teams were split into two groups and competed in a round-robin format. The U18 Smoke Eaters had been decimated by injuries but still held their own, skating to an 8-1 drubbing of Nanaimo in the opening match.
However, the Castlegar Rebels U18 always play the Smokies tough, and came away with a 5-4 win in their second match.
Trail then played the undefeated West Kelowna U18 Warriors to a 1-1 tie in Game 3, but came up just short of making the round robin playoff. The Smoke Eaters defeated the Winfield Bruins 7-3 in a consolation match on Sunday.
The Cranbrook U18 Bucks went 1-1-1 in the round robin, but beat West Kelowna in the semifinal, then captured the tournament championship with a 9-1 drubbing of Castlegar in Sunday’s final.
Read: Trail Smoke Eaters alumnus, Lucchini, scores first NHL goal
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