The 3rd Indoor Pan American Cups concluded today in Rim Park, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, with the final play-off games.

In the Men's Bronze Medal game, a somewhat dispirited USA team let Guyana build a large lead of 4 goals, before staging a come-back to tie the game at 6-6 and forcing overtime again. This time, they didn't waste time and Steve Danielson scored a quick field goal to earn the Bronze Medal.

In the Women's Bronze Game, Trinidad & Tobago increased their lead regularly, already leading 5-0 at the half, for a final score of 8-0.

The Men's Final between Canada and Trinidad & Tobago was a tense affair, with T&T quickly on the board by Wayne Legerton. Canada came back within a minute on a superb goal by Scott Sandison, but T&T took again the advantage by Kwan Browne. Canada managed to tie the score by Wayne Fernandes but T&T controlled most of the play in this first half, stealing Canadian passes in midfield and quickly creating dangerous opportunities. Mike Mahood played superbly in the Canadian goal and kept the half-time score at 2-2.

Canada progressively took control of the game in the second half, but their third goal by Jeewanjot Bath was immediately neutralized by Dwain Quan Chan, on a quick free hit at the top of the D. Canada breathe better after Wayne Fernandes scored on a penalty stroke, but T&T replaced their goal-keeper by a field player and put intense pressure on the Canadian defense and midfield. They were nearly rewarded, but a goal by Cregan Joseph in the last two minutes put the game out of reach.

With this 5-3 win, Canada keeps it Indoor Pan American title. The Pan American Hockey Federation will be well represented at the 2007 World Cup by Canada and Trinidad & Tobago!

With only one team qualifying for the 2007 World Cup, the Women's Final was actually the WC Qualifier, putting additional pressure on the two teams, USA and Canada. Canada got quickly into the game and took control of the play. They displayed more speed but were consistently denied by a steady USA defense. At the end of the first period, they only had one goal to show for their domination (a penalty corner by Andrea Rushton), leaving the game wide open.

Andrea Rushton scored another penalty-corner early in the second period, giving some breathing space to her team, but this was short lived as Tara Jelley scored a field goal to reduce the gap. Canada somewhat lost its composure for a while, giving renewed hope to the USA. Despite a few close calls, the score was still 2-1 with a couple minutes to go, when USA replaced their goal-keeper by an additional field player, increasing even more their pressure to force overtime. With the crowd on the edge of their seat and yelling their support, the Canadian women held tight to earn the Gold Medal and the Pan American birth for the 2007 Indoor World Cup in Vienna.

To conclude the competitions, Andrea Rushton (Canada) and Kwandwane Browne (Trinitad & Tobago) were named Most Valuable Players.