The 12th annual Western Canadian Pond Hockey Championship wrapped in Portage la Prairie yesterday.

The Clarity Vision Centre Team won the gold medal by defeating team Canad Inns 37-31.

"It's our third year in-a-row taking the gold," says Clarity captain Braden Nicoll after an exciting final. "We had a few really tight games and it's always fun having all the boys together and playing one last tournament before the season is over. This year there were a few more teams than normal at 17, so that's a pretty big turn out. It was a little disappointing with the weather with it being so warm and us playing inside, it's always a little extra special to be playing outside under the sun but Travis put a lot of hard work in to get it going and keep it running smoothly. It was really well run and a lot of fun."

The championship trophy awarded to team Clarity.

Tournament organizer Travis Foster says the tourament went off without a hitch, and the games were a lot faster inside.

"We were able to use the ice that we were given and make it work. We had a bit of a gap (because of the Squirt tournament) Saturday afternoon but we fit everything in when we could, and finished up with the final at 9 a.m. Sunday morning. It was a completely different game becasue of the boards. Even the guys playing said it was a lot faster and the puck didn't get stuck in snowbanks so it was really fast and there was no time for breaks."

"You look at some of the scores and they were pretty high this year because there weren't any snowbanks to be digging through," adds Nicoll. "So it was a lot faster than our last two tournaments but it was a lot of fun."

Team Clarity received a trip to a Manitoba Moose game in a private box at MTS Centre with their championship. Foster adds the number of teams was up to 17 this year, and he's hopeful they can build off it next year.