Saskatoon goalie first girl to make elite provincial hockey team for prestigious Edmonton tournament

It's the Code of Honor, a pre-game call to arms that Honor Arcand-Vandale came up with talking hockey with her dad.

Duane Vandale says he and his daughter were going back and forth about games and tactics and teammates. It was getting complicated in the way it can sometimes get with fathers and daughters and sports, so Duane just stopped and asked her a simple question.

"What do you do?"

He laughs now, remembering how exasperated the question made her, how she popped back the answer.

"Stop pucks."

Two words. Her battle cry. The Code.

Duane knows the game well. He has the miles and the scars to prove it. What Honor said next showed him a flash of the steel it takes to be an elite goaltender.

"She looked at me and said, 'Unless you're a goalie, don't try and tell me what I'm supposed to do.' She does it respectfully so I can't get mad at her. And I was never a goalie, so.…"

Honor Arcand-Vandale is nine years old.

The Brick Invitational Hockey Tournament has been a big deal for 33 years and counting, drawing the cream of under-10 hockey players from Canada and the U.S.

The teams — six Canadian provinces and seven American states, including one team made up of kids from all across the Western U.S. — play for a week at the West Edmonton Mall at the end of June.

Honor landed a spot in net for this year's Saskatchewan team. She'll be the first girl to play for the Saskatchewan team in its two decades-plus history at the tournament.

"It's a big deal for her to be involved in that," Duane says.

It's exciting and nerve wracking. Honor's oldest brother Cash has already played in the Brick and her other brother, Nixxon, is a rising star in his own right. But Duane says watching them is a different experience because of the positions