The Estevan Raiders juvenile broomball team won gold at a tournament in St. Claude, Man., on the weekend.
Brayden Tuchscherer scored in overtime to give the Raiders a 2-1 win over Balgonie in the final. Raiders head coach Kevin Schlamp said 3-on-3 overtime solved nothing, so the teams went to 4-on-4 overtime with no goalies. The Raiders won the draw and a feed to Tuchscherer led to the winner.
Levi Cossette had the other Estevan goal in the final.
"It was a goaltenders' duel. The goaltenders were both hot and it was end to end, with lots of shooting," said Schlamp. "It was just a tight, tight game. We hit a lot of posts and just couldn't buy a goal, it seemed like."
The Raiders posted a 2-1 record in the round-robin. They blanked Manitoba 3-0, lost 2-1 to Balgonie and then shut out Odessa 2-0.
Schlamp said both of the team's goalies were unavailable, so Brenden Phillips, who had never played goal before, manned the crease.
"He stood on his head. That helped us out big time. We had a really short bench too, with a couple of injuries."
The Raiders have provincials coming up in Odessa in early March and Schlamp said the win in Manitoba will help the team in the lead-up to the tournament.
"It's definitely a confidence builder and confidence is a big thing in this game. It tells the boys that they're right in there. It's not that we don't have the talent or capability of doing it, we just gotta get out there and make it happen," Schlamp said.
Meanwhile, the Estevan Chamney midget Raiders and Raiderettes hosted a tournament on Saturday.
Raiderettes manager Tina Tuchscherer said it was a day of laid-back competition rather than a full tournament.
"It was more like a fun day of practice for the kids to get ready for provincials," she said.
Aside from the two Estevan teams, Odessa sent girls' and boys' teams and Big River's girls team attended.
Tuchscherer said the group included both midget and bantam teams, with 11 games being played in total. Both Estevan midget teams are at provincials next weekend in Debden.
