Fort Nelson to send first women’s team to Kilrich Yukon Native Hockey Tournament

FORT NELSON, B.C. — A northeast B.C. First Nation will for the first time send a women’s team to compete in a prestigious Indigenous hockey tournament.

Taylor Behn-Tsakoza is a member of Fort Nelson First Nation (FNFN) and will be participating in the Kilrich Yukon Native Hockey Tournament (YNHT) held from March 20th to March 23rd.

Celebrating its 45th edition, 2025 will see a women’s team from FNFN take part for the first time. Behn-Tsakoza calls suiting up for her community “an honour”.

FNFN will send four teams in youth, men’s and women’s divisions. An old-timer division for those over the age of 40 will also be contested.

Behn-Tsakoza, a member of FNFN who plays forward and centre, will suit up for the women’s entry, the Fort Nelson Fireweeds.

They will join the Fort Nelson Bears, who will send teams in two divisions, and the Dunne-Za Chiefs.

First taking up hockey as a youngster, she has made the trip to Whitehorse several times. The veteran of two National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in 2013 and 2014 with Team B.C. says she’s “excited” to be involved with the Fireweeds.

“[The] women’s tournament has been held since 2022,” said Behn-Tsakoza. “[In the] first year, I suited up for a team from Whitehorse.

“I’m really excited to see Indigenous women’s hockey grow in the north. We were never deprived of players, [just] the opportunity to really showcase what we have up in this part of the world.” 

The YNHT was first organized in 1977, and is sanctioned by the Yukon First Nations Hockey Association (YFNHA).  

The organization’s Facebook page says this year will feature 58 teams of Indigenous players from B.C., Alberta and the Yukon.

Behn-Tsakoza says the Fireweeds will also feature players from Prophet River First Nation, the Metis Nation B.C., the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation near Kamloops and the Lil’wat Nation near Mount Currie.

She explained these were players she “had to pull” into duty from her experience with Team B.C. 

Having participated in the tournament as a youth, Behn-Tsakoza calls playing as an adult a “full circle” moment. 

She is looking forward to the support she will receive from members of her community who will make the trip to the Yukon.

“This tournament is special [in that] way,” said Behn-Tsakoza. “It’s providing a space and some ice time for [Indigenous] women to be cheered by our families and our community. It feels good.”

The Fireweeds will open the tournament against the Northern Auroras on Thursday, March 20th at 12:30 p.m. Yukon time.

YNHT tournament coordinator for 2025 Karee Vallevand told Energeticcity.ca the event held every March will feature 59 teams.

Vallevand calls the YNHT a “big gathering of Indigenous people and cultures” where “the hockey is almost secondary” to the event itself.

“We’ll see people we don’t talk to all year,” said Vallevand. “You see them walk-in [during the opening ceremony] and it’s like ‘wow’. It’s so amazing.”
More details and where to stream games live are available on YFNHA’s website.