Red Pheasant team prevails at FSIN hockey championships

The Red Pheasant Rebels got off to a rather slow start at this year’s provincial championships.

But the Rebels rebounded from their tournament opening loss and racked up six consecutive wins to capture the senior men’s contact division at the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) hockey championships.

The tournament, which ran Apr. 8-10 in Saskatoon, attracted about 80 teams who were participating in five divisions.

The Rebels were able to take top honours in their grouping, which featured 12 teams, even though they were forced to play a whopping five games on Apr. 10.
Three of those contests were virtually staged back-to-back-to-back. Games consisted of two 25-minute periods, with only the last five minutes of action being stop time.
The Rebels were downed 6-1 by the Canoe Lake Young Guns, the defending tournament champions, in their opener. Since the event featured a double-knockout format, the Red Pheasant side could not afford another loss as it would have been eliminated from further play.
“We took them a bit too lightly,” Rebels’ player/coach Sheldon Wuttunee said of the Young Guns. “It took us a bit to get our gears working properly.”

The Rebels and Young Guns were matched up against one another in the first game of the tournament, simply by a random draw of entrants.

“We didn’t want to go that route,” said Wuttunee, who is the former Red Pheasant chief. “But it was the luck of the draw. I don’t know if we were fortunate or unfortunate to play Canoe Lake the first day.”

As it turned out, the Rebels and Young Guns also met later on in the tournament. The Red Pheasant club was able to eliminate Canoe Lake with a 5-1 victory.

The Rebels then won the championship by blanking the Beardy’s Blackhawks 2-0. This marked the first time the Red Pheasant club had won the senior men’s contact division at the provincials. The Rebels had made the move up to this division five years ago after experiencing plenty of success over the years in the tournament’s recreational division.

Red Pheasant’s 20-player roster included several players who had represented various junior teams before. The age of the team’s players ranged from 18-38. Wuttunee, a defenceman, is the club’s oldest member.

“Canoe Lake and Beardy’s have many high-level players as well, guys that have played junior hockey and some have even played pro,” Wuttunee said.

Wuttunee was not the only member of his family on the Rebels’ roster. His brother Tyson Wuttunee, a forward, and half-brother Drew Rose, who played defence, were also on the club. Both of these players were selected to the tournament all-star team. Also, Wuttunee’s cousins Ryan Baptiste and Jordan Nighttraveller were also on the Rebels’ squad. Baptiste was named the tournament’s most valuable player while Nighttraveller was chosen as the event’s all-star goalie.

The tournament also featured four other divisions.
The Mistawasis Warriors took top honours in the men’s recreational division. The Warriors beat the Muskeg Lake Blues 6-5 in their final.

In the Legends’ category, the Sandy Lake Blackhawks doubled the Standing Buffalo Sioux 2-1 in their final. The Badgerville Bees registered a convincing 10-4 victory over the English River River Rats to win the Masters’ division.

And the team from Muskeg Lake captured the Ladies’ category with a 9-5 triumph over Sandy Lake in its final.                          

Photo Captions: top

The Red Pheasant rebels took home first place at the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations hockey championships in Saskatoon on April 8-10.

Photo Captions: bottom

Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Vice Chief Morley Watson (center) presents the winning trophy and prize money to team members of the Red Pheasant Rebels.