What a difference a year can make.
Especially when it comes to bantam male AAA hockey in central Newfoundland.
After a year with no bantam team to speak of, the new Central IcePak made their return to the provincial scene just over a week ago with the league’s annual kickoff tournament Oct. 18-20.
The return to games comes almost a year to the date as last year’s team quickly folded after the first tournament weekend of the season. This time around they dressed 17 skaters, a pair of goaltenders and made sure to roll four lines across its four games.
“(This weekend) went really well,” said assistant coach Tony Mulrooney. “We really improved and were right there in the mix.
“It was an all-around team effort.”
This season is a big one for high level hockey in central Newfoundland. Along with the return of the IcePak, the area’s major midget representative also made a comeback to the provincial league.
With both entities running again, it creates a pipeline for the development of regional talent.
According to Mulrooney, the bantam IcePak has two streams of development in mind for this season.
“We want to prepare our second year players for major midget next season and we want to help our first years prepare for their second year,” he said.
In year’s past, the bantam team had a problem with player interest. Many looked at the grueling schedule as deterrent when deciding to try out since they would travel to the west coast or east depending on the opponent. Others looked at the lopsided scores and decided against going out for the team.
That left the coaches of those teams to hit the phones in an attempt to recruit enough players to ice a team.
It wasn’t the case this year as the IcePak had 40 players from across its region come out for tryouts and had to make two cuts before deciding on a final roster.
“It was a tough roster to crack,” said Mulrooney. “There was a lot more commitment from players.”
Heightened player commitment can likely be attributed to the drop in commitment it takes to play with the team this year.
This season saw the league drop its regular months-long schedule in favour of weekend league tournaments once a month.
That means IcePak players aren’t on the road every weekend, giving themselves the opportunity to commit to other activities like school sports teams.
As such, players from across the region from Springdale to Glovertown are a part of the team.
“This is a good representation of central Newfoundland,” said Mulrooney.
The IcePak will next be in action when they head to Harbour Grace and the Danny Cleary Community Centre Nov. 15-17.
