Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 26/99) - Nunavut needs its own Stanley.

Hockey players, coaches and organizers across Canada's newest territory say there's a question that's never been answered, a question that any right-thinking person would expect an answer to every year -- who is the best hockey team in Nunavut?

Sure, the three regions each have their own championships, and there are the territorial playdowns for the Arctic Winter Games, and this year the first Polar Bear Plate midget championship proved a roaring success.

But regional titles are about as far as a team can go. It's like shutting down the NHL playoffs at the start of the semi-finals.

Pond Inlet's up to a Nunavut-wide challenge, said James Pitseolak, one of the best players in the community's oldtimers' league.

"We would be very interested in a Nunavut championship," said Pitseolak. "We have tried to have something like that, but it never happened."

Players are just aching to test their skills against the rest of the territory said Rankin Inlet star Neco Towtongie.

"Here in Rankin we never get to play teams from places like Pangnirtung or Cambridge Bay," said Towtongie. "It would be nice to play different teams, to see what their hockey is like. Every time we go to a tournament it's the same four or five teams."

If a Nunavut-wide showdown ever happens, the rest of the territory had better watch out for Rankin Inlet, said Towtongie, the best player in the senior men's league.

"If there were 10 teams from across Nunavut and Rankin came out with its best players they would finish in the top three, for sure," said Towtongie. "There's a lot of talent here and the young guys are getting better and better."

Well, if Rankin would be in the top three, they wouldn't be far behind Repulse, said that community's rec director, William Beveridge.

"We've got some good players here," said Beveridge. "The younger guys, especially, are very talented. The midget-juveniles have been the champions of Kivalliq for the last two years."

"There's a lot of interest here in playing other regions," he added.

So, what are the chances of Nunavut champs being crowned in the near future?

"I would say it's quite likely it will happen," said Denis Bedard, president of the NWT Amateur Hockey Association.

Bedard said the creation of a territorial championship will be discussed at the association's annual general meeting this fall.