Posted by Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Sabrina Byrnes 
The Sudbury Northern Sliders Sledge Hockey team placed fourth out of 16 teams at the fifth annual London Blizzard Invitational Sledge Hockey Tournament this past weekend.
"They did very well," said Northern Sliders coach Jack Raymond. "It was a good weekend."
The team arrived in London Friday night to play their first game, where they came away with their first win of the weekend.
The Northern Sliders added three more wins to their day Saturday, which brought them into the semi-finals. The team was sitting at 4-0 before entering Sunday's matchup against Ottawa.
They recorded their first loss of the weekend in the semi-finals and went to play for the bronze medal Sunday afternoon. The Northern Sliders came away with fourth place after playing six games in less than 48 hours over the course of the weekend.
This was the first year the Northern Sliders competed in the adult division of this tournament. Raymond said before the tournament that it would be great to win a game, but the main focus was to go down and have fun.
"To go down to a tournament like that and place like they did, they did well," Raymond said.
He added that it becomes more challenging as you go up against some of higher teams in the competition. Raymond said that the Ottawa team had a few former national players on their team.
Raymond said his players were pretty exhausted after the long of weekend of hockey, but would have continued on if they had the chance.
"They're stoked every time. They would have played another game still," said Raymond. "They just like to play, that's all they care about."
The Northern Sliders will now continue with their weekly practices and are hoping to play in a couple more out of town tournaments before the season is up. They are also scheduled to play a team from Skaters Edge on Feb. 7 at the Garson Arena.
For more information on the Northern Sliders contact Jack Raymond at 693-4737 or by e-mail at [email protected] .
