 The Islander Cup hockey tournament started today at the Sanford Center. It's the third time the tournament has been played here in Bemidji. It goes on today through Sunday and features 12 teams with four teams in each age bracket. Each team will play four games. The championship and third place games will take place on Sunday. The kids competing this weekend are ages nine through 14 and are grouped based on their birth year. There are numerous tournaments like this throughout the state of Minnesota We try to showcase the division one hockey rink. There's also a big tournament in Ralph Engelsted and Grand Forks. There's one over in Duluth at the Amsoil. And what our goal was is a lot of these kids are traveling through Bemidji on their way to the Twin Cities on a various weekend. So we said hey why not have a tournament here and kind of see if we can get some interest and it's taken off. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.