RANKIN INLET/KIVALLIQ
Head coach Donald Clark of Rankin Inlet has raised the bar of expectations for the 2017-18 hockey season, following a year in which Mother Nature played havoc with the rebuilding Kivalliq Canucks junior 'C' hockey team.

Hockey North rep Darrin Nichol presents the Challenge Cup junior 'C' trophy to Kivalliq Canucks Keegan Burton, Sidney Nichol, KJ Putulik and Jacob Nakoolak, from left, to mark the Canucks most recent championship in Rankin Inlet in 2016. Coach Donald Clark says anything except a return to the Maritime tourney will be unsatisfactory in 2018. - NNSL file photo

The Canucks were handled quite readily by Baffin's talented squad at this year's Challenge Cup; taking the Canucks out in straight games, with neither game being much in doubt this past month.

Clark said Iqaluit sent a strong team to the Polar Bear Plate in Rankin this season, even though the cost of travel from Iqaluit kept its roster numbers considerably lower than normal.

He said Iqaluit fought back hard to erase a three-goal Canucks lead in the third period and won the Plate in overtime, and he knew Baffin would be stronger when the Canucks travelled to Iqaluit to play for the Challenge Cup and the right to represent the Hockey North Branch at the annual Maritimes/Hockey North junior 'C' tournament on the East Coast.

"I knew we had a difficult task ahead of us because Baffin had a lot of players with quite a few years of experience playing together as a team waiting for us," said Clark.

"We were in tough at the Challenge Cup and the better team won it this season."

Clark said he won't make excuses for the relatively poor showing in Iqaluit.

He said there were a few players who could have helped the Canucks, had their school schedules permitted, but even if they did play, he doubts the outcome would have been much different.

"We had a number of players away at university this year and their schedules just didn't allow them to come to the Cup.

"Plus, we ran into a lot of problems when trying to get all our players into Rankin to properly prepare as a team for the series.

"Then we had to have players travel to Iqaluit on two different days for the Challenge Cup, with half the team not arriving until about an hour prior to game one.

"We really didn't have much luck when it came to transportation this year."

Clark said bad weather forced the Plate back a week from its scheduled dates this year.

He said he planned to keep the Canucks in Rankin for a week before heading to Iqaluit for the Challenge Cup, and losing that time hurt a Kivalliq squad going up against a strong Baffin team.

"The weather wouldn't co-operate for the Challenge Cup either, and we played the series from Monday to Wednesday rather than the normal weekend games.

"We had to squeeze the games in due to the lack of available ice time in Iqaluit, and it was difficult securing seats on the flights between Rankin and Iqaluit.

"There's no doubt the better team won this year, but we didn't catch any breaks with the weather preventing us from playing together as a team before the Challenge Cup, and we needed a strong team effort to have any chance of beating Baffin."

The Challenge Cup winner usually receives $25,000 from Hockey Nunavut to help cover transportation to the Maritimes, but budget constraints lowered that to $15,000 this year.

Clark said he hopes Hockey Nunavut can provide the $25,000 in the coming year.

He said another $15,000 in funding was split between Iqaluit and Kivalliq for the Polar Bear Plate in Rankin.

"Each team received $6,000, and $3,000 went to help cover the cost of hosting the tournament.

"It was expensive for us to get to Iqaluit this year, with the final cost about $1,100 per person.

"That's in addition to bringing our regional players into Rankin before heading to Iqaluit, which cost us about $5,500 with more than half our team being players outside of Rankin this year.

"It's getting pricy for the team travelling to the Challenge Cup each year, so we had some discussions to look at other ways to send a team to the Maritime tournament, such as a selection camp, or both regions sending their 11 or 12 best players, but nobody wants to see the Cup series end, and, while I can't speak for Iqaluit, the Kivalliq hockey community would be really upset if there were no more Challenge Cup."

Clark said both teams do a lot of fundraising throughout the year to ensure, if they're successful at the Cup, they have the money to cover heading to the Maritime/Hockey North championship.

He said players across the Kivalliq want to make the Canucks and have the chance to represent the region in a battle for junior supremacy in Nunavut and then, hopefully, the Maritime tournament.

"It's different than the Arctic Winter Games, where you have players from across the territory making up Team Nunavut.

"It's a Kivalliq team that competes for the Challenge Cup, and that makes it pretty special for the majority of hockey players in our region.

"Our players take a great deal of pride in pulling on the Canucks jersey when they get the chance, and Steve (assistant coach Faulkner) and I are willing to do whatever we have to, within reason, to see that continue."

Clark said Gleason Uppahuak of Arviat has been doing a good job in getting Junior Canucks regional squads in atoms and peewee down to Winnipeg for the annual Aboriginal Minor Hockey Championship.

He said it's a good program with a lot of potential, and he'd like to see a little more co-operation between all three age levels going forward.

"It might be time to look at it totally from a regional point of view and have our own separate Kivalliq Canucks organization, or something along those lines, and we can start next season by getting together and planning fundraising activities from atoms right on up to the junior players.

"It would be a sad day if the kids in our region have to accept they'll never get to represent the Kivalliq and play in the Challenge Cup, but we're going to move ahead thinking positive and looking forward to 2018.

"We got handled by the Baffin pretty good this year and took it on the chin pretty hard, so we have it in the back of our minds that next year will be a different story and there might be some payback waiting for Baffin when we host the Cup in Rankin.

"The ultimate goal for the Kivalliq Canucks in the coming year is to get back to the Maritime tournament, and anything less than that will be unsatisfactory for us!"

Head coach Donald Clark of Rankin Inlet has raised the bar of expectations for the 2017-18 hockey season, following a year in which Mother Nature played havoc with the rebuilding Kivalliq Canucks junior 'C' hockey team.

The Canucks were handled quite readily by Baffin's talented squad at this year's Challenge Cup; taking the Canucks out in straight games, with neither game being much in doubt this past month.

Clark said Iqaluit sent a strong team to the Polar Bear Plate in Rankin this season, even though the cost of travel from Iqaluit kept its roster numbers considerably lower than normal.

He said Iqaluit fought back hard to erase a three-goal Canucks lead in the third period and won the Plate in overtime, and he knew Baffin would be stronger when the Canucks travelled to Iqaluit to play for the Challenge Cup and the right to represent the Hockey North Branch at the annual Maritimes/Hockey North junior 'C' tournament on the East Coast.

"I knew we had a difficult task ahead of us because Baffin had a lot of players with quite a few years of experience playing together as a team waiting for us," said Clark.

"We were in tough at the Challenge Cup and the better team won it this season."

Clark said he won't make excuses for the relatively poor showing in Iqaluit.

He said there were a few players who could have helped the Canucks, had their school schedules permitted, but even if they did play, he doubts the outcome would have been much different.

"We had a number of players away at university this year and their schedules just didn't allow them to come to the Cup.

"Plus, we ran into a lot of problems when trying to get all our players into Rankin to properly prepare as a team for the series.

"Then we had to have players travel to Iqaluit on two different days for the Challenge Cup, with half the team not arriving until about an hour prior to game one.

"We really didn't have much luck when it came to transportation this year."

Clark said bad weather forced the Plate back a week from its scheduled dates this year.

He said he planned to keep the Canucks in Rankin for a week before heading to Iqaluit for the Challenge Cup, and losing that time hurt a Kivalliq squad going up against a strong Baffin team.

"The weather wouldn't co-operate for the Challenge Cup either, and we played the series from Monday to Wednesday rather than the normal weekend games.

"We had to squeeze the games in due to the lack of available ice time in Iqaluit, and it was difficult securing seats on the flights between Rankin and Iqaluit.

"There's no doubt the better team won this year, but we didn't catch any breaks with the weather preventing us from playing together as a team before the Challenge Cup, and we needed a strong team effort to have any chance of beating Baffin."

The Challenge Cup winner usually receives $25,000 from Hockey Nunavut to help cover transportation to the Maritimes, but budget constraints lowered that to $15,000 this year.

Clark said he hopes Hockey Nunavut can provide the $25,000 in the coming year.

He said another $15,000 in funding was split between Iqaluit and Kivalliq for the Polar Bear Plate in Rankin.

"Each team received $6,000, and $3,000 went to help cover the cost of hosting the tournament.

"It was expensive for us to get to Iqaluit this year, with the final cost about $1,100 per person.

"That's in addition to bringing our regional players into Rankin before heading to Iqaluit, which cost us about $5,500 with more than half our team being players outside of Rankin this year.

"It's getting pricy for the team travelling to the Challenge Cup each year, so we had some discussions to look at other ways to send a team to the Maritime tournament, such as a selection camp, or both regions sending their 11 or 12 best players, but nobody wants to see the Cup series end, and, while I can't speak for Iqaluit, the Kivalliq hockey community would be really upset if there were no more Challenge Cup."

Clark said both teams do a lot of fundraising throughout the year to ensure, if they're successful at the Cup, they have the money to cover heading to the Maritime/Hockey North championship.

He said players across the Kivalliq want to make the Canucks and have the chance to represent the region in a battle for junior supremacy in Nunavut and then, hopefully, the Maritime tournament.

"It's different than the Arctic Winter Games, where you have players from across the territory making up Team Nunavut.

"It's a Kivalliq team that competes for the Challenge Cup, and that makes it pretty special for the majority of hockey players in our region.

"Our players take a great deal of pride in pulling on the Canucks jersey when they get the chance, and Steve (assistant coach Faulkner) and I are willing to do whatever we have to, within reason, to see that continue."

Clark said Gleason Uppahuak of Arviat has been doing a good job in getting Junior Canucks regional squads in atoms and peewee down to Winnipeg for the annual Aboriginal Minor Hockey Championship.

He said it's a good program with a lot of potential, and he'd like to see a little more co-operation between all three age levels going forward.

"It might be time to look at it totally from a regional point of view and have our own separate Kivalliq Canucks organization, or something along those lines, and we can start next season by getting together and planning fundraising activities from atoms right on up to the junior players.

"It would be a sad day if the kids in our region have to accept they'll never get to represent the Kivalliq and play in the Challenge Cup, but we're going to move ahead thinking positive and looking forward to 2018.

"We got handled by the Baffin pretty good this year and took it on the chin pretty hard, so we have it in the back of our minds that next year will be a different story and there might be some payback waiting for Baffin when we host the Cup in Rankin.

"The ultimate goal for the Kivalliq Canucks in the coming year is to get back to the Maritime tournament, and anything less than that will be unsatisfactory for us!"

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