RANKIN INLET
The Iqaluit Blizzard defended their Polar Bear Plate midget/junior 'C' championship with a 5-2 win over Coral Harbour at the Rankin Inlet arena earlier this month.

Matt Gardner, Alex Suvega and Max Shoo, from left, accept the Polar Bear Plate championship trophy on behalf of the Iqaluit Blizzard in Rankin Inlet. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

The Rankin Canucks defeated Chesterfield Inlet to claim bronze at the event.

The Plate ran from Feb. 4 to 7 and also featured teams from Arviat, Naujaat, Whale Cove and Baker Lake.

Iqaluit head coach Todd Gardner said the Polar Bear Plate is always one of the best tournaments of the year.

He said his players talk about it all year and David Clark does a wonderful job organizing the event.

"I have nothing but good things to say about how the tournament is run," said Gardner.

"Whether we win or lose, we always have fun at this tournament. We didn't do well in Rankin for a number of years, but we seem to be doing OK during the past couple of years.

"That young Rankin team is only a year or two from where we're at now, and it's going to be a very hard team to beat."

Gardner said he wasn't surprised by how strong Coral Harbour was this year.

He said he's familiar with a number of Coral players and knew the team had an outstanding young goaltender in Joe Bruce Nakoolak.

"The Coral goalie had an outstanding tournament and stood on his head in the final.

"I thought going in it might come down to us and Coral this year.

"They have a very hard-working team, with a number of skilled players and solid goaltending, so they were no surprise to me."

Gardner will return to Rankin for the junior 'C' Challenge Cup, pitting Baffin against Kivalliq in a best-of-three series Feb. 25 to 27.

The winner represents Hockey North at the Maritime Hockey North Jr. 'C' championship from March 30 to April 3 in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Baffin scored Hockey North's first championship at the event in 2015, and hope to get past the Kivalliq Canucks to defend their championship.

Gardner said Iqaluit's Plate team represents the majority of the Baffin roster.

He said the Blizzard's top two lines will definitely lead the Baffin squad.

"We'll be picking up four or five guys for the Challenge Cup.

"We have some guys from Panniqtuuq coming down, and we have another guy in Iqaluit who was injured at the time of the Plate."

Gardner said the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) Nunavut midget squad was missed at this year's Plate, with no midget hockey being played in the 2016 AWG.

He said the AWG team is a boost to the Plate, and the Plate helps the midgets prepare for the Games.

"The Plate is such a great tune-up for the AWG, and the midget team is always competitive in Rankin.

"We really missed the midgets in Rankin this year, and it's pretty sad they got tossed out of this year's AWG.

"We, as a group in Iqaluit, aren't happy with it but, it is what it is and there's nothing we can do about it.

"Hopefully, we'll see them back in two years."

Steve Faulkner coached the Canucks at the Plate, and said the level of play this year was of a high calibre.

He said Iqaluit, Coral, Rankin, Chester and Whale Cove all had a chance to walk away with the championship.

"Iqaluit seemed to have an edge, but there were a few teams that weren't that far behind them," said Faulkner.

"The play of Whale Cove and Chesterfield Inlet was a pleasant surprise.

"They seem to have turned their hockey programs around and are starting to ice more competitive teams."

Faulkner said the Canucks took a couple of costly penalties in their losses against Coral and Iqaluit.

He said they also failed to capitalize on some great chances at crucial times.

"We didn't have the best puck luck this year, and we missed a few chances that should have been buried.

"But we got solid goaltending and a strong showing from our defence.

"We didn't get a ton of scoring from our forwards, but sometimes you need a bounce or two and it wasn't in the cards for us this year.

"We had a lot of midget players in our lineup and - being able to compete with the older guys the way they did - that shows we have a number of promising players coming up in Rankin during the next few years."

Faulkner said he and head coach Donald Clark are happy with the lineup they'll ice for the Challenge Cup.

He said the Kivalliq Canucks have a nice mix of scorers, checkers and energy guys heading to the event.

"We have a stronger defence corps this year, including the Plate's top defenceman in KJ Putulik of Chesterfield Inlet.

"We also have two of Nunavut's top goalies in Connor (Faulkner) and Josh (Tartak).

"The Baffin team is going to be tough to beat, but we're going to give it our best shot and see how things go.

"Rankin has some of the best fans in the country and that's almost like having an extra man on the ice."

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