Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corp. wins Twerdin hockey tournament in OT nail-biter

Overtime. Two hometown teams going for gold. A standing-room-only crowd at the Arctic Winter Games arena. And fans who were on their feet most of the game.

The gold medal game in the Brian Twerdin Toonik Tyme Memorial hockey tournament April 21 had all the elements for an exciting end to the four-day tournament in Iqaluit.

Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corp. beat the Grinding Brewins 5-4 in overtime — the only time the Qikiqtaaluk team held the lead in the game.

Sateana Goupil scored the winner 48 seconds into overtime.

“It came out of the corner as a loose puck,” Goupil said in an on-ice interview minutes after he and each of his teammates took turns hoisting the Toonik Tyme Cup over their heads and doing a victory lap around the rink, hollering and waving to fans in the crowd.

Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corp. player Freddy Hutchings (7) follows the play during the Brian Twerdin Memorial Toonik Tyme hockey tournament April 21 in Iqaluit. (Photo by Corey Larocque)

“I took a backhand shot. It made it between his upper pad and glove hand.”

The teams traded goals in the first and second periods, until the Brewins’ Mitchell Tilley scored a hat trick that gave his team a two-goal advantage they took into the dressing room at the end of the second period.

A few fans reached through the netting above the glass to toss ball caps and tuques, the obligatory show of appreciation for Tilley’s three-goal effort.

But it wasn’t enough. Qikiqtaaluk did all the scoring in the third period, tying the game at four goals apiece with just four minutes, 49 seconds left in regulation time.

Heading into three-on-three overtime, the Brewins took the puck into Qikiqtaaluk’s end, but they cleared it quickly and put the Brewins on the defensive.

Goupil said the Qikiqtaaluk players realized between the second and third period that they were down two goals because the Brewins had capitalized on their errors.

For example, the Brewins took a 2-1 lead five minutes into the second period on an unsuccessful clearing attempt by Qikiqtaaluk goalie Felix Dubeau. This allowed Brewins’ Tilley to steal the puck, step around the sprawling goalie and tuck it into an open net for the first of his three goals.

Qikiqtaaluk came into the third determined to change the momentum, trusting in their game, and with a plan to patiently pace their scoring out to get themselves back in the game, Goupil said.

“We didn’t back down,” he said.

He said Qikiqtaaluk knew the Brewins were going to come at them playing with “an edge.”

The first period was punctuated with penalties, while second- and third-period play was more disciplined on both sides. There were a few scraps as players jostled in front of the net, and once when two started pushing each other immediately after a third-period faceoff.

Kuujjuaq takes bronze

Kuujjuaq Umimmaks Richard Adams (20) turns away from the net to follow the puck during the Brian Twerdin Memorial Toonik Tyme hockey tournament April 21 in Iqaluit. Kuujjuaq won the bronze medal in the four-day tournament. (Photo by Corey Larocque)In the bronze medal game that was played earlier on Sunday evening, Kuujjuaq’s team defeated Iqaluit’s Northern Guardians, 4-1. They built up that lead into the second period, then the teams played a scoreless third.

The tournament started April 18 and ran through the weekend. Nine teams competed in the annual event, which has long been a part of the Toonik Tyme spring festival in Iqaluit.

Teams from Pangnirtung, Kinngait and Kuujjuaq made the trip to play, in addition to hometown squads from Iqaluit.

Last year, the tournament was named in memory of businessman Brian Twerdin, who had supported hockey in Iqaluit for years before he died of cancer in 2022.