LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
The Fort Nelson Ice Hawks lived up to their name in Fort Simpson last weekend when they swooped up first place in the Moosehide Mammas women's hockey tournament.

Jennifer Thistle catches the puck in the Moosehide Mammas' final game against the Fort Nelson Ice Hawks. Behind her is Siobhan Crawford.

The three-day tournament kicked off Jan. 29 with an evening round robin game between the Mammas and the Ice Hawks, a harbinger of things to come since the Hawks beat the Mammas 3-1.

The round robin continued throughout Saturday, with the Hawks dominating the scoreboard. The Mammas lost to Fort Smith Fury but came back to beat the Hay River Hazards 4-3 in their afternoon game.

Jan. 31 opened with a semi-final game between the Mammas and Fort Smith and saw the Mammas win in a shootout.

Fort Nelson, B.C., won the semi-final against Hay River and paired off against the Mammas the afternoon of Jan. 31 for the tournament's championship game.

Despite putting up a fierce fight, the Mammas lost to Fort Nelson 5-0 in the final game, coming in second for the tournament.

Head referee Shane Thompson, who reffed the final game, said the women made for good competition.

"It was good hockey. There were some nice passes, nice shots - Nelson was strong, for sure but the Mammas did very well," he said.

"I think (Fort Nelson) just played a strong game and our girls weren't able to put the puck in the net a couple times. Nelson made some nice shots no goaltender (could) have stopped."

The championship game saw its fair share of penalties and the Ice Hawks' win came despite that. At one point, the Hawks went three-on-five against the Mammas when penalties put Hawks in the box.

"They got a couple breaks and that made all the difference," Thompson said.

Moosehide Mammas player Jennifer Thistle said she was happy with the way the weekend tournament went.

"It was a wicked tournament ... We had it last year and it just keeps getting better," she said.

When asked which game she thought the Mammas were at their best, Thistle pointed to their semi-final shootout against Fort Smith.

The Fort Simpson tournament came just two weeks after the Mammas came in second in Fort Smith and gave the team a second chance to match up against the Fort Smith Fury.

Coach Darwin Norwegian said the Mammas have one more planned tournament this season and plan to travel at the beginning of March to Fort Nelson.

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