Manitoulin Island pure, figure, skating!
Hats off to all the tireless, athletes who train week in and week out to perfect the intricate skills needed to excel in figure skating. Although hockey is often the be all and end all on-ice sport for Manitoulin, there are many, amazing, Manitoulin skaters who would put the old puck and stick skaters to shame as far as pure, skating skill.
So, who among us can honestly “shoot the duck” on both legs? If you can’t, these are some of the many of the skills that can serve you well in any sort of any hockey situations. Such are the sort of obscure. on-ice skills that many, slick, hockey player moves can be available to the envious, hockey elite, just, mere mortals, who can be down to their last reserves and still have enough energy for instance, to find that winger, streaking in on the left wing to pass their outlet pass to seal the game .
That being said, there is a superior skating showdown slated for March 5 at 1 pm for their annual competition, Island Skate, on April 1 and 2. Get on out to see our next Olympic figure skater or power forward!
Off the Rock hockey
Congrats to Little current’s Braedan Case as he helped his Sudbury Nickel Capital AAA Midget Wolves to a first round triumph in the Great North Midget AAA League. The Wolves swept the ever-powerful Sault Greyhounds by scores of 7-4 and 7-1. Since then, in the second round they started with a 10-4 trouncing of the Timmins AAA Majors. Keep going Braedan!
Hockey chips kudos
A big wish for a quick recovery for long-time referee Earl Debassige. Unfortunately, Earl caught an edge while doing a game last week and shattered his ankle badly. He spent some time in hospital last week but is out now attempting to walk with a huge cast. Best of luck Earl in healing properly.
Goaltender Dana Lewis helped her Sudbury Bantam B Lady Wolves to victories over Timmins and Temiskaming on the weekend. Her team is having a very successful season. Dana has been a goaltender since Tyke-age.
Elsewhere in this column, we must apologise to our long-time friend, Beth Armstrong, for missing her in a list of winning lady hockey players at the Little Current tournament. Well it seems that I “doubled-down” on my error by also missing Susie Balogh. Apologies to you both!
The Wikwemikoong Hockey Ladies came awfully close to the big money at the Moose Factory Tournament. Unfortunately after racking up four straight victories by scores of 10-0, 7-0, 7-0 and 6-2 the Lady Hawks dropped a heart-breaker final by a single goal (4-3) to the host Moose Factory Scrappers. Great effort ladies.
Wikwemikoong’s Bo Peltier continues to help out the OHL’s North Bay Battalion on defence. Coach Stan Butler has commended his steady, effective play.
Congrats to Delany Webkamigad (Mom Colleen) as she continues a fine season as a left winger with her Sudbury “AA Ladies.” Her brother Tanner Webkamigad is an important leader on the St. Charles College High School Cardinals. He is a solid stay-at-home defenseman and a former Wiky Hawk and Mindemoya Thunder.
A huge congratulations to Diane Recollet on winning the top prize this weekend at the Wikwemikoong Annual Fishing Derby held off Bayshore Resort in Manitowaning Bay. Diane won a whopping $10,000 for catching a specially tagged fish.
Congrats to Lorne Agawa and his support crew for a fabulous turnout. Other prizes included a snow machine, a large screen TV, cash, etc.
Hats off to Lexi McGregor of Whitefish River as she has taken on the goaltending duties for the Walden Tykes. Stay in front of that puck, Lexi!
Panthers Update
The Manitoulin rep teams had a decent week. The Atoms took on the Nickel City Minor Atom AAA and came away with a 1-1 tie and a 6-1 victory. That extends their unbeaten streak to 15 games. In the meantime our Pee Wees split a pair of contests with the Nickel City Stars winning 7-2 and dropping a 7-4 second game. The team record now stands at 23-6-4 which is impressive, considering the top-notch competition they are facing!
Our Panther Bantams who have improved significantly in the latter part of the season managed a tie and a loss. They tied the Nickel City Bantam Warriors 3-3 while dropping a tough, 6-3 to Copper Cliff Bantam A.
A good sport is good for sports.
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