Whitefish Teams Ride the Mules
This weekend was a big hockey weekend for Whitefish teams. 5 teams made the January pilgrimage to the 11th annual Flying Mules Tournament in Missoula. The group included ‘Stumptown’ in the Men’s Open division, ‘The Fog’ and ‘The Ice’ in the Men’s Rec division, ‘The Northern Lights’ in Women’s C Divison, and ‘The Wailers’ in the Women’s A/B Division.
Women's C Division Champs - Whitefish Northern Lights
The Northern Lights, organized by Sarah Lundstrum won the Women’s “C” division with with a 3-1 victory in the finals on Sunday afternoon. The team featured Tana Voeller, Sue Powell, Megan Powell, Jen Rizzolo, Alison Charman and Tracy Moll from Whitefish, as well as five women from Pincher Creek. Their final record was 3-1 for the weekend.
In the Men’s Rec division, eight teams competed from all over Montana and Idaho. After two days of preliminaries, the Whitefish teams were a combined 5-0-1, and it was The Fog vs. The Ice finals. The finals were Sunday afternoon and The Fog jumped out to an early 4-0 lead behind goals by Todd Becker, Jay Silverson, Nick Buffington and Brandon Batt. The Ice came alive though, and battled back into the game. They got two goals in the second period, and with 50 seconds left in the third Marc Nastase scored to make it 4-3. The Fog did enough to outlast the final onslaught though, they killed the last minute and won their first Flying Mules Championship.
Rec Div. Finals, Whitefish Fog #1 and Ice #2
The Stumptown team in the Open division and the Wailers team in the Women’s A/B had a rougher time. Stumptown finished 1-2-1, and the Wailers, who were three-time defending Flying Mules champions, took 5th place with a 1-3 record. There’s always next year!