Senior hockey star still shines

Page 9

For the third consecutive year since the inception of the Lawrence Weenie Cup for 35-and-older players in North Battleford, Louis Gardiner has been on the winning team. And although it's been 30 years since he played in the Western Hockey League, the 47-year old still possesses some of the skills that took him to the highest level of junior hockey.

For the last two years he's organized his own squad, the Sakitawak Metis Nation, also known as the Ile-a-la-Crosse Chiefs. With this latest trophy, Gardiner's been involved with 10 championship teams, including seven victories in the finals of the full-contact All Native Hockey Tournament, held in North Battleford the same weekend as the Lawrence Weenie Cup.

"I played senior hockey in North Battleford and I made a lot of friends so this gives me a chance to reminisce and see these people again," said Gardiner who also knew Lawrence Weenie, a long-time advocate of minor sports, very well.

While playing in North Battleford allows Gardiner to rekindle the memories for both himself and his fans, it was in a small town where his status was created. Gardiner was raised in Ile-a-la-Crosse, an isolated community of 1,500 two hours north of Meadow Lake, where he learned his skills on the outdoor rinks of a residential school.

A hulking man at 6'3" who looks menacing on skates, Gardiner is a self-described finesse player who eschewed the aggressive style of the '70s. Though there was some advice from local coaches, Gardiner spent his formative years learning skating and puckhandling techniques on his own.

"I skated everyday and pushed myself. On weekends I didn't bother going home."

It was that dedication to the game that gave him an edge when he was finally noticed at a tryout camp in Saskatoon. At 15, he was on a junior B team in Prince Albert where he played hockey in an indoor rink for the first time.

But the jump to organized hockey wasn't easy. Coming from rural Saskatchewan, where he and his dad spent a lot of time trapping, Gardiner had difficulty adjusting.

"It was the first time that I hit the city lights," Gardiner remembered of his arrival in Prince Albert. "I had a hard time outside of the arena and not knowing how to approach life."

Following a year in P.A., Gardiner advanced up the ranks to junior A in North Battleford before landing a spot, at 18, with the Flin Flon Bombers, who were the Western Hockey League. While his natural abilities allowed him to enter organized competitive hockey, he admits that without having the early coaching to instill positional and defensive play, at times he was behind the other players' development.

What led Louis Gardiner to pass on pursuing hockey, though, wasn't a lack of physical skills, but the lack of a support system and the longing for home.

"I really needed people to talk to and they weren't there. My father was a trapper so he didn't know hockey and told me to make up my own decision," Gardiner said.

While it's easy to wonder what might have been had he continued in junior hockey, even all of these years later, it's easy to see that Gardiner still has got game. Against his contemporaries, who are often 10 years his junior, there are still some flashes of brilliance.

In the Lawrence Weenie tournament final on March 30 versus the Onion Lake Border Chiefs, the Ile-a-la-Crosse Chiefs trailed 4-1 after the first of two periods. On the ice for three goals against, Gardiner only had two shots on goal, and Onion Lake appeared to be in control of the contest.

Then, without warning, Gardiner elevated his game. On an unassuming rush crossing the blueline, Gardiner burst past his defensive check, angled to the net and with his long reach tucked a low shot past the Border Chiefs keeper.

A couple of minutes later, when he had possession of the puck on a two-on-one, Gardiner forced the Onion Lake team to take the game's only penalty, a hooking call.

While the Ile-a-la-Crosse team didn't score with the man advantage, Gardner later registered his second goal, a quick wrist shot on a pass from a face-off. He was also on the ice for his team's two other goals to finish with a +1, and had seven shots on net in his team's 6-5 shootout win.

The Chiefs' coach, Felix Merasty, said it's a pleasure to have a player of Gardiner's status on the team.

"He's very easy to get along and he doesn't talk much except with his stick," the Merasty said.

Gardiner plays in about eight tournaments a year but his main involvement in sports now is as the regional co-ordinator with the Beaver River Regional Recreation Association. He also has two sons, Louis Jr., 13, and Ty, 12, whom he encourages in their hockey pursuits.

Because Ile-a-la-Crosse is too small to have its own minor hockey team, the boys play in Meadow Lake. And with games every weekend, Gardiner estimates he'll drive 2,000 kilometres monthly to assist his children. However, as a father, this is a price he is more than willing to pay.