The hope of any community event is that it grows to become something that is looked forward to.
In terms of the Air Tindi Cup Youth Hockey Challenge, it looks as if it's gaining plenty of traction.
The third annual hosting of the event happened from Jan. 26 to 28 at the Khon Go Cho Centre in Behchoko, featuring close to three dozen young hockey players between the ages of nine through 15 from the host community, Whati, Wekweeti, Lutsel K'e and, for the first time, Fort Providence.
Mike Yakabuski, a volunteer with Hockey NWT, helped to bring everything together again this year and said the event usually sees North Slave communities taking part but the addition of Fort Providence was a nice surprise.
"They're so close to the area and asked if they could send some players," he said. "We said of course and they've already asked if they could take part again next year. It's all about spurring minor hockey development and we're doing our bit to help with that."
Yellowknife's Brad Mueller, one of Hockey NWT's instructors, was on hand for the entire weekend to put the youth through their paces in a variety of skills, but he had some help this year in the form of Tehnille Gard and Jeanne Yurris of the Yellowknife Women's Hockey League.
Yakabuski said having Gard and Yurris at the camp was a way to help with developing girls hockey.
"We haven't had a lot of girls come out and those who have come out have been from Whati," he said. "We want to encourage more girls to take part and having Tehnille and Jeanne is a good way to do that, I think."
Gard said it was nice to have Yakabuski reach out to the women's league.
"Having female coaches inspires girls to take part and I hope we motivated the girls who were there," she said. "The few that were there looked like they were having fun. It's all about making sure they get better."
When the instruction was done, it was time for the tournament. All the players were split into three teams, each with their own colour jerseys – green, gold and red. In the end, it was Team Red that captured the Air Tindi Cup with a 7-6 win over Team Gold in a shootout.
Yakabuski said a rule was implemented during the games to make sure things were as fair as possible.
"No player could score more than two goals unless they passed the puck first," he said. "That was to ensure everyone got a chance to touch the puck because there's a wide range in both ages and skill development."
One thing Gard noticed about the games was they didn't take as much precedence over the skills training.
"They seemed to want to do the drills more than playing," she said. "They don't get a lot of this kind of stuff so they were really eager to learn more than play games and it showed they're inclined to learn."
Yakabuski said the hope is to keep the event in Behchoko for as long as possible because it's a central location for the communities, a sentiment shared by Jesse Bierman, the recreation co-ordinator in Behchoko.
"With this being the third year for the event, we get better at organizing all the travel, meals and skills sessions. We hope Behchoko can continue to host the event," he said.