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Friday, January 9, 2026

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The Hamiota Community Complex hosted the Tournament of Champions this past weekend. This was the U11 division that competed against one another for the right to go to Brandon to the Tournament of Champions there.

There were ten teams involved in the competition with three pools of teams. Pool A was the host team, the Hamiota Huskies. Other teams in that pool were Reston, Hartney and Shoal Lake. In pool B the teams were Roblin, Virden and Birtle, and in pool C the teams were Swan Valley, Rivers and Oak Lake.

The teams played 2 games in their pool and then were seeded according to wins and losses.

Shoal Lake defeated Hamiota 7-4. Hartney defeated Hamiota 11-6. Rivers defeated Oak Lake 8-5 and Swan Valley also defeated Oak Lake in a lopsided game. Reston defeated Hartney 7-0 and defeated Shoal Lake 5-2. Virden defeated Roblin 9-3 and defeated Birtle by a lopsided score.

After round robin play, Swan Valley was the number one seed and Virden was the second seed.

Number 3 seed, Reston defeated Hartney who was the sixth seed 4-2. This was a very close game. The fourth seed, Shoal Lake was defeated by the fifth seed Roblin by a score of 8-3.

In other games, Birtle defeated Rivers 9-6 and Hamiota defeated Oak Lake 11-7.

This completed the tournament games for these four teams.

On Sunday morning, Reston upset the number one seed, Swan Valley by a score of 8-4. and Virden shut out Roblin 11-0. This meant it would be Reston vs Virden in the championship game.

In the consolation side game, Shoal Lake defeated Hartney 8-6. In the Bronze medal game, Roblin defeated Swan Valley 8-3. In the Gold medal game, Virden defeated Reston to win the banner and the trophy in this year's Tournament of Champions in Hamiota.

The all-star goalie was Liam Coe from the Hartney Devils. The all-star defensemen were Brock Brown from Virden and Preston Harris from Reston Rockets. The all-star forwards were Rally King from the Virden Oil Caps, Emmett Foxon from the Roblin Stars and Easton Mateika from the Swan Valley Stampeders.

All in all, this was a very successful tournament. Thanks to the officials for their time officiating the games. Thank you to all the volunteers who gave their time to put on a successful weekend of hockey. And last, but not least, thank you to the parents and grandparents who come out to support their local teams and cheer them on and of course, to the 100 plus hockey players who gave it their all.

Tournament of Champions in Hamiota

By Gerry Nolan