Grey Wolves howl in Baker
Nip Rankin Bears 6-5 to claim regional old-timer's crown
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
BAKER LAKE
The Baker Lake Grey Wolves sent a large hometown crowd home happy when they captured the Kivalliq Cup old-timer's hockey championship in Baker this past month.
Baker's Jason Putumiraqtuq accepts the Most Valuable Player award from Mayor Joedee Joedee at the Kivalliq Cup old-timer's tournament in Baker Lake on Feb. 21, 2016. - photo courtesy of Noel Kaludjak |
The Grey Wolves rallied back to defeat the Rankin Bears 6-5 in the final to claim the title.
Baker's Arctic Fuel Flames and a Kivalliq squad rounded out the teams at the event.
A storm system that affected the Kivalliq for three days kept other teams from making it into Baker for the event.
A small group of dedicated volunteers, located mainly in Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet, have been working the past two years to return the Kivalliq Cup to its former glory.
The tournament was one of the region's most eagerly-anticipated events more than 15 years ago.
Rankin were the defending champs at this year's event, having rolled over the opposition to claim the cup on home ice when the tournament made its return this past year.
A group of tourney organizers and team representatives met after this year's cup and it was decided Baker Lake would, once again, host the event in 2017.
For many years, the tournament rotated from community to community, but Rankin's Noel Kaludjak said it may be time for hockey's elder statesmen to consider giving the tournament a permanent home.
And, he said, Baker would be an ideal location.
"The Kivalliq Cup is still a fairly big deal in Baker because they don't have the big tournaments a community like Rankin has every year," said Kaludjak.
"There were nice crowds for our games this year and the fans were really into it.
"I think Baker would be a nice home for the tournament."
Kaludjak said this year's edition of the Rankin Bears may have been a little overconfident going into the final game.
He said the Bears went through the round robin undefeated and handled the Wolves fairly easily in their first encounter.
"We scored to make it 1-0 and we may have thought we were going to take it to them again.
"But they played really hard and kept coming at us.
"It was a great game and they deserved to win."
