Pee Wee Quebec Blog: Day 2

Sunday morning was open for some free time for the families and the boys. Some parents hit the slopes at a local mountain while others toured around Old Quebec. My wife and I took our girls to the snow park for some sledding and toured the ice hotel. The boys met at the Videotron Centre to get checked in for the tournament and watch some hockey at the 18,000 seat arena where they would play their first tournament game. This gave them a great opportunity to trade pins with other kids and vendors which is a big tradition of the tournament. This year's Flyers pin has Kevin Hayes on it who was a two time participant in the tournament.

In the afternoon we met in Stoneham which is a small mountain town just north of Quebec City at an outdoor rink where the boys enjoyed a four on four tournament with each other. We then headed to our billet party at the Sugar Shack where the team treated everyone for dinner. The ambience of the sugar shack is one of Quebec folklore, singing and dancing with all their traditional dishes being infused with maple syrup. After another great day taking everything in that Quebec has to offer it was time to get the tournament underway on Monday.
Our first game was against the fifth ranked team in the United States, the Mid-Fairfield Jr. Rangers. The kids battled hard and settled in after a scoreless first period. After being down 2-0 we got a late goal in the second period to put us in a good spot heading into the third. The Rangers scored an early goal in the third after we hit a post to go up 3-1. The boys again responded and scored to make it 3-2 and continued to push with a few good opportunities on a 3-1 and 3-2 that we couldn't capitalize on. The Rangers got the all important next goal and beat us 4-2.
The way the tournament is formatted is that every team plays their first game in the Videotron Centre. After that you are either on the winner side of the bracket and continue to play in Videotron, or you are on the loser side of the bracket and play at Pavillon de la Jeunesse. Now we will need to win an elimination game Wednesday against the Adirondack Jr. Wings, and a game Thursday against the winner of the NJ Devils and Detroit Belle Tire to qualify for the quarter final on Saturday. We play another exhibition game today against the Peterborough Petes as we continue to work on our team game to prepare for the elimination games of the tournament. What a great experience for these kids to get an opportunity to play in these elimination games and continue to develop and learn as young players. Thanks to the Flyers Alumni and the Flyers Charities that support this group every year and also to all the parents for their support and the billet families that take vacation time this week to look after the players. They are excited for this opportunity and will be ready to go Wednesday.