Kristjan Toivola and Treven Salminen just can't give up on hockey. They're hoping hockey won't give up on them, especially after gaining exposure to numerous scouts, thanks to being chosen for a singular honor.

The 17-year-old athletes, who have been playing hockey since kindergarten in Whatcom County, recently helped their special honor squad to qualify for the championship game in the 35th annual Midget Scholarship Tournament in lower British Columbia cities.

Midget, in hockey lingo, most definitely does not mean small. Instead, it means talented U.S. high school age athletes who are not yet competing at the Junior A, B or C levels.

"We were the only guys from the states chosen to play in the tournament," said Toivola, a Mount Baker junior. "It was neat to play against all those Canadians."

Salminen agreed the Jan. 15-21 tournament was a special hockey thrill.

"It was about what I expected. I was ready for it. There were four teams of 19 players selected from a two-day tryout by invitation of about twice that many players," said Salminen, a Lynden junior. "Our team, the Fraser Valley Flames, went 2-1. We got into the championship game and we lost 6-5 in overtime to the Greater Vancouver Avalanche."

Ironically, Toivola, a center, and Salminen, a defenseman, didn't have to drive as far to the tournament sites as they do twice a week to practice with the Whatcom Warriors at Everett's Comcast Arena with players from King and Snohomish counties.

They say the team - which plays weekend games at Canadian arenas as far away as Whistler - has lost more games than it has won, but the season is still well worth it, especially considering their hockey goals.

"There's only four of us from Whatcom County still playing at our age level," said Salminen. "There's also Bryan MacLean and Austin Sabin, and we car pool with parents. For competition against the Canadian Midget teams (in the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association), we're still known as the Whatcom Warriors. It's just kind of a fluke that there's only four local players (still competing in the association). This is the first year there haven't been enough for a full team to practice at the Sportsplex."

Toivola sees numerous younger kids still playing hockey, so he's hoping his age group is, indeed, a fluke - just as a football team occasionally has a senior class represented by only a handful of players.

The boys said the long-established honor tournament also stresses both scholarship and sportsmanship in its selection criteria. Most of the players who were selected will play either in college or eventually try to qualify for Major Junior teams, such as the Everett Silvertips in the Western Hockey League,

"Next year, we'll try out for a Junior A team and we'll have to travel to practice," said Salminen, who isn't sure whether he will attend college right out of Lynden.

Would he consider a scholarship offer in either hockey or lacrosse? He is so skilled in lacrosse that he was selected for Finland's U19 team in world age-group competition this summer in Finland.

"I sure would love a college scholarship," said Salminen, unless he develops so well in hockey that he is able to make a major junior team, a level for college freshmen and sophomores because of the 20-year-old "age out" rule. Major junior players get paid, so they aren't eligible for college hockey, although Salminen still could play lacrosse in college if his hockey days end.

"If I can, I'd like to go the major junior route. I'd like to play as long as possible," said Toivola, who plans to become a commercial fisherman like his hockey-loving father, Kari, who gave Kristjan a hockey stick "I think when I was 2 years old."

Watching his father play hockey, Toivola said, inspired him to play as soon as possible. Now he knows he'll have to fill out his 6-foot, 150-pound frame to gain a shot at minor league hockey.

Toivola noted he already had an offer from a junior team in Bremerton and Salminen from a junior squad in Seattle, but they realistically can go only so far to play and practice as high school juniors. But that's a lot farther than most local athletes are willing to venture.