Feb. 24th: Helena Hockey Tournament Weekend

We just got home from a great 24 hours in our state capital for Nolan's first hockey tournament. The Sleeping Giant Invitational is an 8 and Under tournament where the Tykes play separate from the "older" Mites. This really gives the younger Tykes confidence in the game and more room to operate than when the Tykes and Mites play together.

The Team Mom decorated each players hotel room door!

NOLAN EVEN SCORED TWO GOALS TODAY! HIS FIRST EVER!! They came in the first game and he continued to work really hard and had a great time through the other two games as well! Throughout the games, we thought he had a few assists too, and was really aggressive.

Barrett with big brother Nolan before his first game, at 830am.

Above: After lunch and a nap for the boys (and Dad) at the hotel, we went back to the rink for the 3rd game of the day at 3pm.

Above: Nolan is in the background, playing defense. You can also see the smaller goals they used in this picture. They played 4 on 4 with an additional player acting as the goalie. Everybody rotated through playing goalie each game, which was fun for the kids.

The Billings Junior Bulls "Teal" Team picture after their last game.

This is the medal and trophy that each Tyke player received. The medal sits on top of the trophy so the kids actually got two for one! Nolan had no idea he would get anything so he was thrilled!!

The Junior Bulls "Teal" team consisted of 10 Tykes from the Billings Amateur Hockey Leagues' Mite program including Nolan. As a credit to the coaches and to the Billings Mite program, our Tykes really showed they know what they were doing. Simple things like which way they should be going, where they should be standing for a face off, etc. were kind of a struggle for some of the kids from the other teams. They don't keep score in these games, but the kids sure keep score (and the coaches too) and the Billings kids would have won all three of their games today, so they were VERY excited about that. They played three games (against the Bozeman Jr. Ice Dogs, the Butte Jr. Blues, and the Helena Jr. Bighorns).