They've crossed an ocean strait and flown over the coastal mountain range to get here.
Now its time to see how the Brentwood College hockey team of Mill Bay stacks up against Prince George high school opponents.
The Brentonians face off today at 1 p.m. at Kin 1 against the Prince George Polars No. 1 team, the first of four local teams the Vancouver Island school will play in its weekend visit to the city.
On Friday, Brentwood plays the Duchess Park Condors Friday at 7 a.m. at Kin 1, then meets the Kelly Road Roadrunners a few hours later at noon at the Elksentre.
The Prince George tour concludes Saturday at CN Centre against the PGSS No. 2 team, starting at 12:15 p.m.
"We just kind of made a connection and started talking about it and it was a pleasant surprise when they made the offer to come up here," said Renzo Berra, coach of the PGSS teams. "I've always been invited to go to the Brentwood (Ross Cup) tournament in February and for years I've been thinking about how we could raise the money and find the time."
Kelly Road, Duchess Park have played each other this season but this will be the first game action for the Polars. Berra invited the College Heights Cougars to get involved but did not get a response.
The Polars No. 1 squad is made up of players from the Cariboo Cougars major midget team, and those players will not be available later in the weekend due to their rep team commitments. PGSS will have five female players in its lineup for the first game.
"We could field more than two more teams through the program but with it being on a Saturday a lot of the kids aren't available, so we'll have a lot of kids playing in both games," Berra said. "We have enough to field two teams so it gives a bunch of kids an opportunity to experience high school hockey."
High school hockey is now in its eighth season in Prince George.
