The KC Colts outperformed the Airdrie Lightning to take home gold in the final of the second Ryan Couling Memorial U18 AA tournament last weekend.
The KC Colts extended its winning streak to five games with a 7-2 win over the Airdrie Lightning at the Ron Ebbesen arena on Saturday.
“I'd say Airdrie and KC both had extremely good tournaments and KC was the ultimate winner, but it was really great to see all the local fans come out and support Airdrie right up into the final,” said Cameron Davies, a friend of the Couling family and organizer of the tournament.
Scoring for the Airdrie Lightning was Cooper Visser and Kayden Zaharko each adding single goals. Goaltender Lucas Veal made 38 saves in the loss for the Airdrie Lightning.
The memorial tournament ran from Dec. 28 to 30, featuring eight U18 AA boys' hockey teams from Alberta.
The Wheatland Chiefs returned this year after winning the inaugural tournament a year prior, while the other six teams were a welcome addition.
The tournament was held to remember Ryan Couling, an Airdrie hockey player who passed away in November 2022 after a battle with cancer at the age of 21. He had been a long-time member of the Airdrie hockey community.
“It went off very successfully this year and especially the amount of money raised, we raised just under $9,000 that will be donated to the [Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation],” Davies said.
He added that the Couling family was very involved in the tournament with Couling’s dad being the assistant coach for the Airdrie Lightning. Couling’s mom and brother attended the opening ceremonies and several games, and his girlfriend was involved in the planning committee.
“I think they're very overwhelmed, sad at the same time because spending three or four days focusing solely on Ryan and that kind of thing, I think it was bitter-sweet,” Davies said.
Couling played for Airdrie Minor Hockey Association teams growing up and was a member of the Airdrie Lightning team for three seasons from 2016 to 2019. He graduated from W.H. Croxford High School in 2019 and was studying at SAIT when he was diagnosed with Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma (FHC) – a rare form of liver cancer – in April 2021. His fight against the disease lasted 19 months.
Tournament organizers congratulated the winning team and thanked volunteers for making the tournament possible.
