M&T take senior title
Sweep AEM to claim Rankin men's hockey championship
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, February 26, 2014
RANKIN INLET
M&T Enterprises withstood a furious comeback attempt by Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) to edge AEM 86 and capture the 201314 Rankin Inlet Senior Men's Hockey League championship in Rankin this past week.
Connor Faulkner, left, and Sidney Nichol, right, present the 2014 Rankin Inlet Senior Men's Hockey League championship trophy to Gary Nutarakituq of M&T Enterprises in Rankin this past week. - photo courtesy Noel Kaludjak |
M&T humbled AEM 104 in game one of the final to sweep the series 20.
Both teams survived thrilling semifinal match-ups to reach the final, with M&T getting past A&K Canteen 21 and AEM nipping Eskimo Point Lumber Supply 21 in their respective bestofthree series.
M&T goalie Steve Faulkner said the Rankin senior league was quite competitive this year.
He said there wasn't a whole lot of difference in the skill levels between the first and fifth place teams.
"Any team could have beaten any other on any given night," said Faulkner.
"It seems like every year - whether it's a player or a team - you hit lulls in the season and, this year, we had players who all hit a lull at the same time.
"We took four or five losses in a row, but we got it together at the right time."
Faulkner said the final may have been a bit below the quality of the two semifinal series, because both teams had a number of top players unavailable due to work or injury.
He said in the end, it balanced itself out between the two teams.
"I don't think it really took anything away from the final, but it would have been nice if both teams had their full rosters available for the series.
"The two teams in the final having full rosters, and having two or three really close games, would have been the perfect way to end the season.
"But that's just not always the way things work out."
The Rankin senior league went up to five teams this season, with the top four making the playoffs.
Faulkner said the new format was pretty exciting during the season, especially the last couple of weeks.
He said most of the players take a lot of pride of how they perform in the league and nobody wanted to miss the playoffs.
"It's the top league we have around here to play in.
"It's well-played hockey, each team has two or three good lines, a ton of fans come out and enjoy it, and we have good officiating.
"It's not like it's pick-up games with puck droppers out there.
"It's real hockey, and you work hard for something all year that you want to finish when you get to the playoffs."
Faulkner said the excitement the league can generate was shown when, after a difficult first half, the Kativik team got a few of its players back, including Iqaluit draft pick Sateaana Goupil, and made a late season run for the playoffs.
He said it's a team game, but Kativik really started to put it all together after Goupil's arrival.
"He's (Goupil) a real team player who never stops working out there, and he makes the players around him better.
"Kativik were a tough team down the stretch. I think they could have done a lot of damage if they'd dug themselves all the way out of the hole they were in and made the playoffs."
