Seventh annual Phil Edwards Memorial treats community to a weekend of great hockey

The seventh annual Phil Edwards Memorial Hockey Tournament on the hometown ice sheet brought players and hockey fans from all over the North Country for a very busy first weekend in the January.

Since the Free Press publisher was out of town that weekend, we’re indebted to tournament organizer and premier fan, Krit LaMere, for providing some excellent photos from the weekend and a little overview of the hockey action.

The event each year remembers one of the biggest supporters of Tupper Lake hockey in our community’s history and the highly skilled carpenter and contractor who devoted thousands of hours to building the arena over the course of several years. What’s been done since Phil literally built the recreational facility himself, has been thousands of dollars of improvements under the ownerships of the Town of Tupper Lake (then Altamont) and the Tupper Lake Central School District where artificial ice-making was added, as were physical improvements like locker rooms with showers, new spectator area heating and the completion of an enormous community room which provides warm seating overlooking the ice sheet. It’s now one of the best arenas in the North Country, folks who come here to play hockey and watch have remarked.

The nine-team tournament opened that Friday evening with a match against some hometown favorites- Phil’s Hammers who included many from the Edwards family and Fletcher’s, who boasted the only female goaltender of the tournament, Katie Snyder.

Other teams that hit the ice that weekend were Lizotte Logging, Eric’s Shaheen’s E&M, Paradise Valley Tree Service, the Chazy Chicken Hawks, Benders, Locker Room 5 and the Border Bandits.

In the end on Sunday morning the Championship A division saw a victory as best in the tourney for Locker Room 5- a compilation of Lake Placid and Saranac Lake players but including the gamesmanship of former tournament organizer Adam Baldwin.

The Championship A play-off saw a defeat forthe Chazy Chicken Hawks, previously called Giroux Poultry. It was the first time in the team’s three years in the event they lost a game. Some older dads joined their sons for a real family effort that unfortunately wasn’t good enough to bring home their trophy back to Chazy.

Among the Drew clan was female hockey player Katie Drew.

Third in that top division was the Border Bandits, who hail heavy from the border region of P’Burg and Chazy.

Tupper Lake’s E&M featuring lady player Stephanie Demars rounded out that division.

In the Championship B division the Potsdam heavy Paradise Valley Tree Service took first place in Sunday morning’s final when they beat Benders, which featured many players from the hockey-strong community of Massena.

Lizotte Logging, of course featuring many Tupper Lake players and some New Hampshire imports played well enough that weekend to win third place in their division.

Phil’s Hammers and Fletchers- both boasting lots of Tupper Lake talent, showed plenty of spirit but not enough goals to make it to the finals in their division.