By Peter Watts /
It’s been 16 years, but Mike Bara can still remember playing in the Mac’s Tournament.
“I was with the Buffaloes in a couple of Mac’s finals,” he said this week as the 2009 tournament was unveiled at the Westin Hotel.
“We lost in the final to the Calgary Flames in 1993 as they won the Mac’s for the first time.”
Bara returns to this year’s event as an assistant coach for the UFA Bisons, a young team, which headlines Division 4 of the men’s event.
The Bisons are joined by the North Island Silvertips, Red Deer, Saskatoon Contacts and the St. Albert Raiders.
“We’re likely to be one of the youngest teams in the tournament,” Bara said. “We’ve got nine 15 year olds. Having said that, six of those players played on a western Canada bantam championship team out of Airdrie last season.
“So this is a talented group. They’ve taken a little time to get up to speed at the Midget level, but we think the team is coming along just in time for the Mac’s.”
Pool Two has the defending champion Calgary Buffaloes along with Caribou Cougars, Lethbridge Y’s Men, Prince Albert and the Vancouver Canadians.
“We’ve only got three players back from last season and we’re struggling to find some consistency,” said coach James Poole. “We’ve beaten Lethbridge once in league play this season, although they are ahead of us in the Alberta AAA Midget League. Overall, there’s no powerhouse in our division, but there won’t be an easy game in round robin either.”
The Calgary Royals find themselves in Pool Three along with Beardy’s, three time champion Shattuck St. Mary’s, Vancouver NW Giants, and Winnipeg Wild. Royals assistant coach, Brian Aucoin, knows this won’t be an easy pool for his club which has been a .500 hockey team through the first part of the season.
“Shattuck’s always tough,” he said. “The Wild is leading its league in Manitoba. The other teams are all third in their respective leagues. We’ve been competitive in a very tight south division in Alberta where the top and bottom teams are separated by about six points. We’ve only got three players back from last season and one of them, Guillaume Glasspoole, is currently playing for Medicine Hat in the WHL.
Pool One is headlined by the Calgary Flames, and includes Leduc, Okanagan, the Saskatoon Blazers, and Yorkton. The locals have been a fascinating example of “consistently inconsistent,” in the words of coach Darryl Henderson.
“We started the season with four wins,” he said. “Then we tied our next four games. Then we lost our next four games. We righted the ship with four wins and then we lost five in a row. So we hope to be on a winning role by the time the tournament gets underway.
“We know the week goes quickly and you can’t afford not to get off to a good start if you want to get to the playoffs.”
The final pool, Pool Five, is headed by the Calgary North Stars, and includes Tisdale, Lloydminster, the Carolina Juniors, and the Vancouver NE Chiefs.
“We’ve been up and down like the other Calgary teams,” said assistant coach Kyle Lieske. “Most of our games in the early going have been against north division teams here in Alberta and this year, they are a lot stronger than they’ve been in recent years.
“We lost by a goal to Lloydminster in their rink and they are leading the north division in just their third year in the league. We’ve got six players back from a team that finished 1-3 and didn’t make the playoffs at the Mac’s last year. So, we’ll be trying to improve on that this season.”
The tournament begins on Boxing Day and ends New Year’s Day. The men’s and women’s finals will be played at the Saddledome, with the women going first at 10 a.m. and the men following at 2 p.m.
Shaw TV will carry both games live. In addition, Friends of the Mac’s will sponsor more than 200 Calgary minor hockey teams to take in Championship Day. |
