Last Saturday, the Gibsons and Area Community Centre was home to the third annual Marylou Lymer Memorial Hockey Tournament.
Established in 2009, the local tournament is a charity event held in honour of Lymer, a long time Sunshine Coast resident, who courageously battled breast cancer for seven years, passing away on April 1, 2010.
The tournament featured four co-ed teams, with players ranging in age from 10 to 71. The teams participated in a preliminary round robin format with the top two teams playing a championship game for the coveted "Lady Lymer Memorial Cup," a metre tall replica of the Stanley Cup, where the names of the winning team are engraved.
The final game featured the Blackfish Pub Bruins facing off against the Sunshine Coast Credit Union Canucks. The unusually fast paced game was highlighted by several exchanges of opportunities late in the game, with goalie Brandon Lymer being the difference for the Bruins. The Bruins took the championship in a 5-4 win.
The winning Bruin players were Steve Rasmussen, Brandon Lymer, Jeremy Newman, brothers Clark and Scott Jenson, father and son Zoe and Noah Jacob, Jeff Carslake, mother and son Ellen Lymer and Cody Gent, Dick Candy, and Albert Bezaire.
The tournament raised more than $20,000 through player fundraising initiatives and hockey memorabilia auctions. The net proceeds of the event will be shared with the Ryan Dempster Family Foundation ($5,000), the Canadian Cancer Society ($15,000), and $1,000 will be donated to young local tournament participant Ryden Custance, who is competing with teammate Kiel Strang in the FIRST World Robotics Championship in St. Louis.
Since March 2009, hockey tournaments held in Marylou's honour have raised more than $58,000.
-Submitted
