Southern Ontario hosts Little NHL for first time

The Little NHL Tournament seems to be a hit, regardless of where it is held.
The annual Aboriginal youth hockey event, which is organized by the Little Native Hockey League (LNHL) and has been running for 38 years, is for the most part usually held in either Sudbury or Sault Ste. Marie.
But this year's tournament, which ran from March 16 to March 19, was hosted for the first time by Sarnia's Aamjiwnaan First Nation.
It was also the first time in more than a decade that the tournament had been staged in southern Ontario.
"Things went very smoothly," said LNHL president Marvin Assinewai.
This year's event attracted 102 teams from across Ontario in nine divisions. That's almost the same number (103) of squads that participated at the 2008 tournament in Sault Ste. Marie.
The poor state of the economy has been felt even in minor hockey circles this season. Various youth tournaments have either been cancelled or events have seen a dramatic decrease in their participation numbers.
And Assinewai said officials were initially somewhat concerned about what their numbers would be like this year. In the end, they were obviously pleased to attract virtually the same amount of competing squads as the year before.
Assinewai believes he knows why.
"For most of the kids, this is their NHL," he said. "They want to play in it. And they look forward to it all year."
The majority of the tournament participants play house league hockey in their community or for area rep teams.
"When they go to the Little NHL, they represent their reserve," Assinewai said. "They look forward to doing that and also to playing for another team."
Players from Six Nations enjoyed the most success at this year's tournament. Six Nations teams were dominant in the boys' action, winning four out of the six A championship finals.
Six Nations had championship teams in the tyke, novice, atom and bantam finals.
The Six Nations tykes were especially impressive, blanking Wikwemikong 13-0 in their final.
The Six Nations novices also had a high-scoring final, downing Garden River 10-4.
As for the Six Nations atom side, it eked out a 2-1 victory over Garden River in its final. And the Six Nations bantams downed Nipissing 5-1 in their final.
The two other boys' squads that captured A championships were the Wikwemikong peewees, who blanked Curve Lake 7-0 in their final and the Moose Cree midget team, which defeated Beausoleil 5-0.
In girls' play, the three A champions were Moose Cree (peewee), Whitefish Lake (bantam) and Wikwemikong (midget).
Several ex-National Hockey League players, including a pair of former Aboriginal stars, also attended the tournament.
Reggie Leach and Stan Jonathan showed up for the latter portions of the tournament and helped hand out some of the trophies to clubs that advanced to the A finals.
Also, three other former pros­Johnny Bower, Mark Napier and Tony McKegney­took part in the tournament's opening ceremonies and offered words of encouragement to competitors.