LANTZ: Teams from across Nova Scotia descended on the East Hants Sportsplex in Lantz after Christmas for an annual tradition in memory of a young player gone too soon.
The Braeden Bannister Memorial Tournament took over the Sportspelx on Dec. 27-29 for the U-15 AA and U-15 B division tournament.
Teams from Antigonish; Cape Breton County; Sackville (two teams in B division); Bedford (two teams, one in each division); Acadia (from the Valley); and Pictou County taking part.
The tournament was held in honour of Braeden Bannister, who was an accomplished athlete, an honours student, a volunteer firefighter with Lantz Volunteer Fire and and an amazing human being with a strong desire to give back to others.
Braeden was proud to be part of the East Hants Minor Hockey Association throughout his childhood, where he was a great leader and an amazing teammate.
EHMHA assisted with organizing and holding the Braeden Bannister Memorial U15 tournament at the East Hants Sportsplex.
All funds raised will be donated to the Braeden Bannister Memorial Fund, a fund which gives back to the community of East Hants.
Some examples of what this fund supports are:
Providing funding for children to play the sport they love.
Giving Bursaries to high school graduating students.
Placing AED’s in schools.
Donating to local food banks
Upgrading sport fields.
In the game that we covered featuring the East Hants U-15 B Penguins against Bedford Blues, who had a few palyers from Waverley/Fall River lacing up their skates with them, it was a back and forth game with lots of excitement.
It seemed that when one team would score, the other would be like well not so fast and score one of their own goals.
That was until late in the third period when an attempt to clear the puck by a Blues defender found its way behind their own goalie to give East Hants the lead.
The Pens added an empty net goal to secure the 6-4 victory.
Scoring for East Hants were Nick Legge with a hat trick, Ryan Sheriff with a pair while Ryan Mouland added a single tally.
No information on who scored for Bedford was available.
Owen Lamb, who is from the Fall River area, was the goalkeeper for Bedford, and had kept the Blues in it and the game close through out it all.
No game scoring info for the U-15 AA game between Pictou and East Hants was provided.
Here are some game action photos from the Blues-Pens game and then the U-15 AA game between Bedofrd, who have more than half a dozen Waverley/Fall River players, and Cape Breton County.
Here are some more photos from the Pens U-15 B game vs the Blues:
