Small Town Hockey - Critical to the Big Leagues

WINKLER -- Maybe somewhere in a Manhattan office the commissioner of the NHL was working on a lineup that could help him with a sticky situation in the desert but out on the prairie there was hockey on Friday night.

Real, down-home, grassroots, town hockey.

The kind where your brother is on one line skating with the slick kid from Plum Coulee or Cooks Creek.

Up in the stands folks look down and after a nice goal maybe remark, "He kinda reminds of me Eric Fehr."

This is Canadian junior hockey, where the game is what matters and not which town can come up with phantom buyers for bonds or who has the best lawyer.

Nope, the team with the stingiest goalie and the swiftest skaters is most often the winner. Funny, how that works.

The Selkirk Steelers ended up on the right end of things this night beating the Winkler Flyers 5-2 in Game 1 of the MJHL Addison Division Final.

In Portage, the Dauphin Kings ruled the Terriers in Game 1 of their Sher-Wood Division best-of-seven with a 6-4 victory.

There weren't a lot of $200 game-worn jerseys or suits in the crowd of 1,500-plus in Winkler's downtown barn, where they keep it so cold the ice doesn't chew up and a toque is never a bad idea. There were snowmobile jackets and lots of ball caps, and, did we mention?, hockey. Fast, physical and fun. The kind of hockey Maurice Richard and Gordie Howe grew up on.

To read the full article written by Gary Lawless in the Winnipeg Free Press Click Here.

Small Town Hockey - Critical to the Big Leagues