'Everyone looks forward to this': fans, players fill rinks for Indigenous minor hockey tournament in Winnipeg

Thousands of hockey players and their supporters were in Winnipeg for the 34th Manitoba Indigenous Cultural Education Centre (MICEC) minor hockey tournament.

Sixty-eight teams from Indigenous communities all across the province showed up to the Hockey for All Centre for the three-day tournament, which wraps up on Sunday.

Dennis Daniels, MICEC's executive director, says this year's event is bigger than the last, as the tournament continues to build back up attendance to pre-pandemic levels.

"It develops a lot of stuff for the younger kids in the way of self-esteem, self-consciousness, self-worth," Daniels said.

"I saw a lot of kids going on to better things and they with careers and all that.… Some of them even made it into AAA hockey and junior hockey and some of them even made it to the NHL."

It was hard to move around the packed arena at noon on Sunday as fans came to cheer for their teams.

On one rink, the Minegoziibe Warriors faced the Norway House North Stars' green team in the semi-finals of the U9 bracket.

"A goal was just scored for our team here, and then they scored a goal on us, and we scored another goal," said Minegoziibe coach Harley Chartrand during the first couple minutes of the first period.

"Everybody was cheering and the fans are quite into it."

Chartrand said he played in the tournament himself two decades ago, so he knows what that feels like for his kids now.

"They're feeling pretty good you know. It builds a sense of community for our players to be here playing," he said.

"It's a good thing for us, right? It's something for them to look up to and it's memories being made every time we're out here."

Just before the Warriors and the North Stars took the ice, organizers were handing out participation