Northern Lights wins Sweethearts Tournament

Whitefish's women's hockey team, the Northern Lights, brought home the gold trophy from a tournament in Helena this week. The women won their first game against the Helena A team, 6-0, and won the second game against the Helena E team, 2-0.

In the third game, the Northern Lights expected to play a team from Missoula or Bozeman, but they wound up playing a hybrid team consisting of players from the Helena A and E teams and suffered a 2-1 loss.

Northern Lights player Lini Reading said when that game started, her team knew they were going to make it to the final championship game. She suspected her teammates may have been conserving energy, thus leading to the loss. Reading said her team out shot the Helena team, but the puck just wasn't going in.

In the championship game, the Northern Lights came out on the ice ready to play and made two quick goals and their opponent made one. The score stayed at 2-1 for most of the game, but toward the end, Whitefish scored again to win, 3-1.

Reading said the Northern Lights players were tired in the final game and would have benefited from having another forward and defensive line to put on the ice.

"We just had a ball," Reading said. "Win or lose we always have a great time."