CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Max Chisholm held out hope.
Through the ups and downs, starts and stops of a COVID-19-impacted season, the 17-year-old Summerside native kept the faith there would be a Prince Edward Island major under-18 hockey championship series.
It starts tonight with Chisholm and his Charlottetown Bulk Carriers Knights hosting the Kensington Monaghan Farms Wild in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series at MacLauchlan Arena in Charlottetown. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
“There’s always times when you have a little doubt, but I was always holding out and just hoping we could be able to play because it’s my last year and I’ve been waiting three years for a chance to lift that provincial trophy and I couldn’t be more excited,” the captain said Tuesday.
Lessons learned
Hockey players have been told not to look too far ahead and stay in the moment many times during their careers. The message resonates a lot more this season and is one of the many lessons they learned during a year interrupted numerous times, and impacted in many ways, by the pandemic.
“When we look at our team, we have such a great group and we want to be able to showcase that, not just here on the Island against a couple of teams, but to the rest of the Maritimes,” said Nolan Stewart, a 16-year-old centre from Brooklyn, located near Montague. “We just have to be grateful that we’re still playing and hopefully, in the near future, we can get this cleared up and go back to normal.
“It’s taught us a lot about adversity.”
He said the team is taking a day-by-day approach as no one knows what the future holds.
While it is not the season anyone would have hoped for, the players are good at keeping things in perspective.
“I wish we could have gone to the Monctonian and the IceJam and … got to play in those big tournaments,” said rookie defenceman Luke Coughlin, a Charlottetown native. “But there are some positives. There was one weekend where we were the only game east of Quebec, I believe.”
Head coach Luke Beck and his staff have stressed to their players to be grateful for the practices and the games they are able to get in this season, and the teenagers have responded.
“You just learn to appreciate the game more, appreciate the little things, like going on the bus,” said Beck, noting they didn’t make an off-Island road trip this year due to the pandemic.
“Our group comes to the rink every day and they have fun and they want to get better. … They've been nothing short of excellent in handling (everything). All the credit goes back to the young men we’re fortunate to have in our dressing room.”
Different roles
The Wild, the four-time defending provincial champions, has won five of the six championships since relocating from Cornwall for the 2013-14 season.
“This year is our year,” Stewart said.
The Knights went 8-0-0-0 in league play and enters the series as the favourite.
“To hear we’re going to get to play a playoff series against Kensington, I am very excited, and all the boys and the coaching staff are as well,” Coughlin said. “So, we’re going to put our work boots on here the next couple weeks (and get to work).”
Charlottetown has used both goalies (Jack Howatt and Aiden Williams) all season, and Beck said that would continue in the championship series. Howatt is expected to play tonight.
Looking back
Here are the results of the past 11 Prince Edward Island major under-18 hockey championship series.
- 2009-10 Charlottetown defeats Cornwall 4-0.
- 2010-11 Charlottetown defeats Cornwall 4-1.
- 2011-12 Cornwall defeats Charlottetown 4-2.
- 2012-13 Cornwall defeats Charlottetown 4-2.
- 2013-14 Kensington defeats Charlottetown 4-2.
- 2014-15 Charlottetown defeats Kensington 4-2
- 2015-16 Kensington defeats Charlottetown 4-0.
- 2016-17 Kensington defeats Charlottetown 4-3.
- 2017-18 Kensington defeats Charlottetown 4-1.
- 2018-19 Kensington defeats Charlottetown 4-0.
- 2019-20 Series tied 1-1 when cancelled due to COVID-19.
Jason Malloy is The Guardian's sports editor.
