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KIVALLIQ/TIGNISH, P.E.I.
It didn't look like 2012 was going to be the year Nunavut made its first trip to the final of the Maritime-Hockey North junior C championship after the first two games of the tournament in Tignish, P.E.I., this past month.

The Kivalliq Canucks were nipped 5-3 by Pownal, P.E.I., in the first game, before being drubbed 10-1 by Nova Scotia for an 0-2 start.

Head coach Donald Clark said he went to bed the first night in Tignish wondering if it was time to walk away from the Kivalliq bench and give someone else a chance.

He said he did a lot of soul searching that evening, trying to prepare himself for the next day's action.

"I didn't bring any of this up with the players, but our coaching staff was making plans to revamp our whole program after that first day," said Clark.

"It looked pretty dark for us there after the first day."

The next day was, in fact, a much brighter one for the Canucks.

The Kivalliq players found their confidence after defeating the New Brunswick champions, and kept the momentum going to get past host Tignish in game four.

The 2-2 record earned them a playoff spot and a semifinal rematch with Pownal.

Clark said game three was the first time Kivalliq ever defeated New Brunswick at the Maritime event.

He said the Canucks were suddenly a confident group going into the semifinal, riding the hot goaltending of tourney all-star James Merritt and the stellar play of all-star forward Wendel Kaludjak.

"We felt we had a really good shot in the semifinal because we'd only lost to Pownal by two goals in the first game, and we knew we hadn't played our best.

"James had been playing well in goal the whole tournament and Wendel was on fire in game four, scoring six goals in our win over Tignish."

Kivalliq did upset the Red Devils in the semifinal, but didn't have much left in the tank as it faced the Nova Scotia champions in the final.

The Canucks kept it close at 5-3, until the Chester Clippers finally broke their spirit with a shorthanded goal in the third period. Clark said he'd been using his top line a lot and knew they didn't have enough to come back after Nova Scotia went up by three. He said two Canucks were injured the first day, and couldn't play the rest of the weekend, and the team couldn't ask any more of its top players.

"I was playing Wendel and T.J. Tootoo almost every second shift during the last three or four games.

"Those teams have an advantage over us in that they play together all year, and they're used to full-contact all the time, but we showed this year it can be done.

"We've going to have some tough decisions next year because a lot of guys will be in their overage year and you're only allowed four, but, if we can win the Challenge Cup again, we're looking forward to building on this and giving it another shot.

"Our players know now that they belong there."

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