Rankin Inlet (May 24/06) - Residents of Rankin Inlet were won over by a golden personality during taping of the Kraft Hockeyville contest this past week.

Team Canada goaltender Sami Jo Small was in Rankin, along with Northern region co-host Mark Day for the taping session.

John Hickes treats Canadian Olympic hockey gold medallist Sami Jo Small and Kraft Hockeyville Northern co-host Mark Day to an authentic dog-sled ride in Rankin Inlet this past week. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

Small, 30, was born in Winnipeg and grew up in St. Vital, Manitoba.

She was a member of the womens hockey team that won gold at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Small was also part of Team Canada's gold-medal wins at the 1999, 2000 and 2001 world championships, being named the top goaltender at the 1999 and 2000 events.

And, she played goal for the mens team at Stanford University for five years (twice the Pac-10 Player of the Year) while earning a mechanical-engineering degree.

The large crowd on hand for the taping of the Hockeyville segment erupted with applause as Small presented a cheque for $500 to the Rankin Inlet Falcons.

"Who knows what's going to happen in a couple of weeks, but today Rankin Inlet is definitely Hockeyville," Small hollered to the crowd.

Brian McKay is on the committee behind Rankin's bid for the Hockeyville crown.

McKay said it was incredible to watch the interaction between Small and the hundreds of people vying for her attention.

And, he said, that affection is a two-way street.

"I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the crew after the filming, and Sami talked a lot about how much she enjoyed her visit to Rankin," McKay said.

"She has a number of symbols on her goalie mask representing every area of Canada, including an Inukshuk for the North.

"She had her last name translated into Inuktitut and she's going to put the spelling, in syllabics, under the Inukshuk on her mask.

"That shows the impact the people of Rankin had on her."

The next round of Hockeyville will be aired on the CBC on June 6, beginning at 7 p.m. (Rankin time).

The field will then be narrowed to five on June 9, and the winner announced on the final episode on June 12, also airing at 7 p.m.

Mayor Lorne Kusugak said he would like to see everyone across the North tune in and cheer for Rankin.

"This is an exciting time for Rankin and the community was fortunate to have Sami Jo Small here for the program," Kusugak said.

"Everyone, especially the kids, fell in love with her.

"All you see now are kids with her name (autograph) on their jersey, jacket, gloves - whatever they had to be signed when she was here.

"She is welcome back to our community anytime."