North Bay Jr. Trappers U16's take on Windy City

CHICAGO - Six months of planning and fundraising came to fruition and at 10 pm on November 4th, the players and parents of the North Bay Jr. Trappers U16's boarded their bus and headed south down Highway 11. Final destination: Bauer International Invite, Chicago, Illinois.

The team quickly settled in with pizza in hand and watched the movie “The Untouchables”, starring Sean Connery, based on the events of legendary Chicago gangster Al Capone.

After disembarking at the Sarnia border crossing to meet with the nice people who work for U.S. Homeland Security, the team headed towards South Bend, Indiana. The feature presentation for this leg of the trip was the movie “Rudy”, based on the true story of an underdog football player at renowned Notre Dame University. It was the coaches’ intent not to let the players know they were stopping at the university. But the boys had a sense something big was happening when the bus pulled up University Avenue and drove towards the main building on the Notre Dame campus.

It was a beautiful day. As we got off the bus, a woman noticed the players had North Bay on their track suit coats and told us she grew up in Sturgeon Falls and that her son was now a student at the UND. The team was given a fantastic campus tour by two senior students.

The trip from South Bend, Indiana to Chicago gave everyone a first-hand experience of rush hour in a huge metropolis. After checking into the team’s hotel, the players and coaches attended the pre-tourney party which was sponsored by the Chicago Blackhawks. There was free food and beverages for all participants and coaches. The Hockey Hall of Fame had brought in the Stanley Cup, the Conn Smythe, the Hart, Art Ross, the Vezina and the Calder trophies. The Hawks even had Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull on hand for autographs. There were some big games too, with the top Canadian minor midget AAA team, the Winnipeg Monarchs playing the top U.S. team, the Chicago Mission.

The players and coaches proudly wore their poppies, and the distinctively Canadian symbol prompted many questions from Americans and recognition from other Canadians living in the U.S. At the party the coaches met Bobby Mantha, brother of Sturgeon icon Moe. Bobby is coaching the Minor Midget Detroit Little Ceasar’s team along with Iroquois Falls native Andy Rymsha.

With our first test set to go against Dynamo Riga from Latvia at 9 am Friday, the players and coaches headed back to the hotel for much needed rest. The Latvians took to the ice with older gear and mostly wooden sticks, and did not even use pucks in their warm up. The Jr. Trappers held their own through the first, holding the score at 2-0. A quick Latvian goal early in the second had the Jr. Trappers down 3–0, but two goals by Owen Polson Mowatt and Randy Amyot 40 seconds apart saw the momentum shift and the Jr. Trappers forced the Latvians to take a couple of penalties with our forechecking pressure. It seemed the Latvians didn’t like the physical part of the game. However, it was the Latvians who showed us how they kill penalties in Latvia – the Jr. Trappers gave up three short-handed goals. In fact, there was only one team which could stop the Latvian penalty killers and that did not happen until the Championship game on Sunday. The final score was Latvia 9 – North Bay 2. Randy Amyot took home the Hardest Worker award.

On Friday afternoon, the Jr. Trappers played the Southern Flyers. This regional team based in Nashville was coached by Clayton Giffen, who worked with Darren Turcotte when Darren was developing the Jr. Predators Midget AAA team in Nashville, TN. Clayton plans to bring his regional team of players from Kentucky, Florida, Georgia and Nashville to the Big Nickel in Sudbury next year. The Flyers beat the Jr. Trappers 5-1 with a great second period. After a heartfelt speech about playing like champions today and everyday, the players came out after the second-period flood and finished the game strong with Mike Perrin scoring the lone goal and Patrick Robert earning the hard hat.

The Washington Jr. Capitals were the next team to meet the Jr. Trappers on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. Again the Jr. Trappers refined their game. After giving up two goals in the first and a scoreless second, a puck took a funny bounce on goalie Dustin Hummel as he played it behind the net. The puck ended up in the crease for an easy tap in. But the Jr. Trappers came back hard. Jimmy Tulloch and Martin Strasbourg scored two goals within 60 seconds and pressed the Jr. Caps, hitting the post late in the game. An empty net goal sealed the victory for the Capitals. Hummel ended up with 32 saves and Ray Major led the way with seven hits and two blocked shots earning the hardest worker hardhat.

The final game of the Bauer International Invite was against the California Heat. The boys from L.A. know how to play the game. They were fast, had pin-point passing and ran several different systems. The Jr. Trappers scored first with Jimmy Tulloch putting in Mike Perrin’s rebound. The Heat went into the second up 2 – 1. But Owen Polson Mowatt found the back of the net to tie up the game mid way through the second. The Heat could not keep up with the Jr. Trappers’ 48 hits and the tension elevated as several L.A. parents began chirping the North Bay players. Cooler heads prevailed as both teams battled hard back and forth. A late third period goal sealed the deal for California. Mike Carr was brilliant in net earning the hardest worker, making some great saves to keep the Jr. Trappers in the game.

The team was in high spirits heading into downtown Chicago for sightseeing at Wrigley Field and some world famous Chicago Deep Dish Pizza at Giordano’s Pizza. After the team dinner on Saturday evening, players and parents walked the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago.

Although the Jr. Trappers did not win a game, the experience of visiting Notre Dame University, playing in the world’s largest tournament, the Bauer International Invite, and traveling to Chicago was worth every minute of the 30-hour return trip on a coach bus. USA Hockey is doing some great things at the grass root level and you can see it in the development of their players. Some teams had player fees in excess of $12,000 USD. Some like U16 silver medalist Latvia used wood sticks. As we learned, it is not how nice your gear is that matters, it is the team that plays as one that wins almost every time.

The hockey world is very small and the experience of meeting so many coaches and players and the many contacts we made has opened our eyes to the development system these non-traditional hockey areas have in place. The Jr. Trappers have proven that players from North Bay can compete at this level. However, lack of continuity in our AAA system could be the difference between players from North Bay traveling to Chicago and losing four games and traveling to Chicago and playing on Sunday.

For all players and coaches in North Bay, the Bauer Invite experience was an amazing experience, and every player wanting to compete at the next level should have the opportunity to participate in it. The many lessons learned transformed both players and coaches. It is our hope that the players become tomorrow’s hockey coaches and hockey experiences like this will continue to push the envelope and develop local players and our game.

Submitted to BayToday.ca