One of Yellowknife鈥檚 newest hockey teams hit the road earlier this month for its first tournament.

And they didn鈥檛 embarrass themselves in the slightest.

The Summit Air Spitfires U13 girls squad travelled to Calgary for the Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival, better known as Wickfest, which wrapped up on Dec. 3. The Spitfires won all their games right up to the final, but weren鈥檛 able to emerge with the title as they ended up dropping a 4-1 decision to the Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs from Alberta.

Even with the loss in the final, head coach Ryan Nichols said he couldn鈥檛 have been prouder of the way his players comported themselves.

鈥淲e played five games in about 28 hours and we just ran out of steam in the final,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e lost to a team that was bigger than us, but it was an impressive showing. In my opinion, our girls deserved to win it because they played so well.鈥�

The Spitfires started the round-robin with a 7-1 win over the Clavet Cougars from Saskatchewan in their opening game. From there, goaltender Hayden Wray was the star of the show as she shut the door 鈥� literally 鈥� for the next three games. She posted back-to-back-to-back clean sheets with shutout wins over the North West District U13 out of Edmonton (3-0), the GHC Jr. Inferno Scorch of Calgary (3-0) and the first meeting against the Chiefs (1-0).

Nichols said it could have easily been four goose-eggs in a row for Wray.

鈥淭he only goal she gave up was on a deflection off a skate,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur goaltending and defence was really strong and we got the offence at the right time.鈥�

Being that this was the first tournament ever for the Spitfires, there were questions about whether they were playing in the right tier.

Never mind the fact that a good chunk of the team was well under the upper age limit of 13, Nichols acknowledged.

鈥淲e took eight 10-year-olds,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou never know where you should be (competitively) when you enter because we play mostly male teams up here. Our girls showed up right out of the gate and we showed we could hang with those other teams.鈥�

The Spitfires have two more tournaments this season; the next one is coming up in Cochrane, Alta., at the end of January.

Nichols said the organizers there were good enough to wait until the completion of Wickfest to properly tier the girls in the right division.

鈥淚 think we鈥檒l do well in the best two tournaments coming up,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l work in practice and hopefully come out on the right side in Cochrane.鈥�