Little Ukrainians who seduced the city of Quebec, the madness surrounding the presence of Carey Price and the inauguration of a women’s section: the general manager of the Tournoi International de Hockey Pee-Wee de Québec, Patrick Dom, knows everything about the 63e edition of the event can hardly be surpassed.
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But above all the presence of the Ukrainians will have made this edition something special. Finally, their first game on February 11 was the first to sell out since the Videotron Center opened on September 12, 2015.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be this big. Will we relive this? I don’t think so. We have reached one of the peaks. February 11th will remain a historic day for the Pee-Wee tournament. For me it’s the biggest day in the history of the event,” said Dom on Monday in the annual review of his event.
In addition, the Ukrainians forced him to work overtime during the tournament!
After a few exhibition games in which the Ukrainian team outplayed their opponents, word had spread around the city that they might have been misclassified and too strong for the AA division.
“We were expecting the game of 11 against the Boston Bruins, but we had already worked upstream and prepared a schedule in parallel in case we needed to put them in the AAA. They knew about it and so did the Bruins. When Ukraine won by a large margin, it was announced during the post-match press conference that we would improve them. Finally everything was right. »
Normally, the story on everyone’s lips at this last Pee-Wee tournament would have been the creation of this women’s division, which featured twelve teams and eventually crowned the Durham Lightning.
West Sunday.
But with the presence of a Ukrainian team, we can say that we weren’t “in normal times”.
CAREY PRICE AND THE GIRLS
Despite it all, Patrick Dom believes that first female experience was a success and that the division is here to stay.
Photo Didier Debusschere
The West Durham Lightning won the Women’s Division Final.
“So many people have come to visit us to say thank you, be it Hockey Quebec, Hockey Canada, or women’s hockey organizations from everywhere. When you hear girls say to you: Thank you for putting us in the same place as the boys, it warms your heart. »
Among those who congratulated Tournoi’s Pee-Wee on the creation of this division: a certain Carey Price.
Photo Didier Debusschere
Carey Price was at the Videotron Center on Saturday to say hello to Quebec hockey fans.
“After his autograph session, Carey asked us to go to the other side, to the youth pavilion. On the way we met the Durham team and the girls recognized him immediately. He took the time to sign them autographs and he turned to me and said, It’s so cool what you’re doing for
Girl. »
A PEBBLE IN THE SHOE
In addition to the magical moments, the parking problem on the day of February 11th was again an issue for Dom.
“On the first Saturday, we had notified the citizens of the city in advance. We knew we would have 18,000 people. It’s not normal that 2000 people didn’t show up because they didn’t have a parking space. The answer we got was that the RTC [Réseau de transport de la Capitale] did not consider it necessary to use shuttles. That must be why so many people didn’t park,” he lamented.