The Canada Games are a key check point for elite young athletes in this country who dream of the Olympics.
And as with the big show, there is far more Island connection to the Summer Games than Winter Games. Compare the 48 Island athletes and five medals at the 2012 London Summer Olympics to just two Island athletes at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, although Jamie Benn’s gold medal in hockey certainly shone bright.
So the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George were not as big for local athletes as the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que., where 43 Island athletes won medals. But Prince George did have several intriguing Island angles at play — especially since the Canada Winter Games feature a select few summer sports to fill out the event since Winter Games tend to be skimpier in terms of available events.
The Prince George Winter Games began with emerging women’s hockey star Micah Hart of Saanichton the flagbearer for host B.C. in the opening ceremonies. Hart is a Peninsula Minor Hockey product who recently captained Canada to the silver medal at the IIHF 2015 women’s U-18 championship. The Island blueliner is headed to play NCAA hockey at Cornell and is already being talked about for the Canadian team to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
That’s what the Canada Games are about. Canada Winter Games alumni include heavy hitters such as Sidney Crosby, Catriona LeMay Doan and Hayley Wickenheiser. Canada Summer Games alumni include such Island sporting greats as Steve Nash, Ryan Cochrane, Gerald Kazanowski, Eli Pasquale, Gareth Rees, Gary Reed, Ian Bridge, Riley McCormick, Roland Green, Paul and Gary Gait, among numerous others.
The 2015 Prince George Canada Winter Games conclude today with the closing ceremonies.
The final weekend featured a host of potential future Victoria Royals players with five signed prospects playing for various provinces — Scott Walford for B.C., Ryan Peckford for Alberta, Brayden Pachal for Saskatchewan and Cayden Kraus and goaltender Dylan Myskiw for Manitoba.
B.C. went down 6-3 to Quebec in the quarter-finals, ending 2014 first-round bantam draft pick Walford’s chances of a medal. Pachal and Saskatchewan were blanked 9-0 by Ontario. Peckford’s Alberta squad beat New Brunswick 6-1 in the quarter-finals while Myskiw backstopped Manitoba to a 4-1 victory over Nova Scotia. In the semifinals, Alberta defeated Manitoba 3-1 and Ontario beat Quebec 5-2, with Alberta and Ontario meeting for gold today and Manitoba and Quebec for the bronze.
Royals GM Cam Hope said he is pleased with the progress of his incoming group and expects his five players in the Prince George Winter Games to be pressing for positions as rookies during Royals training camp in September.
With the Royals having a large class of 19-year-olds this season, and only allowed to keep three of them next season as over-agers, the team will necessarily have to go young next year.
Hope has been watching the hockey games in the Prince George Winter Games and that’s why it’s almost with a sense of relief, he notes: “That’s a pretty talented group of 1999 [born] players.”
He’s going to need them over the next couple of years in the WHL.
Meanwhile, Quebec shows no indication of letting up in the future as Canada’s leading producer of Winter Olympics medals. Quebec tops the medals table with 139 medals, including 62 gold, followed by Ontario with 108 medals, 46 gold, and host B.C., with 85 medals, 20 of them gold.
A total of 48 athletes, coaches and support staff from the Island were in Prince George for the Games. Highlights included Mel Pemble of Victoria winning gold and silver in para alpine skiing and Tim Henderson and Braxton Clark of Nanaimo capturing bronze medals in curling and judo, respectively. Sarah Jones of Victoria was fourth with the B.C. synchronized swim team, which was centralized at Saanich Commonwealth Place.
