Medalling at Manawan
Pryor Stacey only let in one goal in his final three starts of the tournament to secure the U18 win for the Waswanipi Firehawks. Courtesy Mike Stacey
Before last weekend’s Manawan Minor Hockey Tournament, Kahnawa’kehró:non goaltender Pryor Stacey had played two tournaments with the U18 Waswanipi Firehawks, losing in the finals both times.
“Last summer, they called me, and asked me to play for them in the Every Child Matters tournament in Gatineau,” said Stacey.
This time, though, Waswanipi did not just make the finals, they won the whole thing, beating Mashteuiatsh 4-0 in the finals as Stacey recorded the shutout.
“Each game was a hard-fought battle. We had to really work to win. And that’s how we played all our games, with hard work and never giving up,” said Stacey.
“It feels amazing, like all our work has paid off, and we really earned it, especially with the last two tournaments we played together.”
Stacey only allowed one goal in the last three games he played for the Firehawks in Manawan, during their semifinals which they won 2-1 against the Mashteuiatsh Cataractes.
“I was really confident. I thought I played really well,” said Stacey.
“My mentality was that if I stopped as many pucks as I could, that really helped my team to win games. The difference if they would win or lose was how many goals I was letting in, so I was really focusing on stopping all the pucks and helping my team win, as far as they could go.”
The 15-year-old goaltender did exactly that - there’s not much more a goaltender can do to give their team a chance to win than allow zero goals.
Stacey plays his regular season games for the U17 AAA Lac St. Louis Grenadiers, where he often plays against the same few teams and players. To him, these kinds of tournaments, where he played against vastly different playstyles and teams he had never seen before, benefit him greatly as a developing player.
“It’s a different pace, you get to experience a lot of other players and how they play,” said Stacey.
“I’m so used to the different playing styles (in AAA) and I won’t play against anything unexpected.”
All in all, Stacey could not have asked for much more from this tournament.
“It was a really fun experience,” said the netminder.
Kahnawake’s Jaxton McComber was also invited to play in the Manawan tournament, performing double duty by playing on two different teams.
He played for the U18 Cataractes team that lost the semifinals against the Firehawks.
But, McComber did not leave empty-handed, as the U15 Cataractes team won their finals, a 1-0 victory over the Mistissini Chummies.
While the tournament is named after Manawan First Nation, the tournament itself was not played there, but rather in Trois-Rivieres, as they had the proper facilities to hold a multi-day, multi-division tournament.
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Along with the U15 and U18 age groups, three other younger age groups and youth and adult broomball tournaments took place over the weekend.
On top of the championship banners, the winning organizations received a cash prize for their victory. The U18 Firehawks received $2,500 for their win, while the U15 Cataractes won $1,500.
The full list of results for the tournament can be found on the Manawan hockey website.
