By Dave Dawson, Orillia Packet & TimesFriday, November 17, 2017 3:26:42 EST PM
For the love of the game -- it's a slogan you often hear, but for a hockey team from Anchorage, Alaska, it's much more than a few trite words.
The Anchorage North Stars have travelled to central Ontario to compete in a large tournament in Mississauga, slated for this weekend. The team contacted various AAA teams in the province to arrange exhibition games in an attempt to maximize their time in Ontario and to see how they stack up against some tough teams.
On Wednesday night, the North Stars faced off against the North Central Predators' major bantams at the Rama MASK. But before the puck even dropped, the North Stars had to overcome many challenges. On the way to Rama, the team bus was involved in a minor accident on Highway 400. While there were no injuries, it forced the team to make several logistical changes on the fly, forcing the game to be delayed by almost an hour.
Despite the delay and obstacles, the two teams were able to play a full game, with the Predators prevailing 4-2. The score was not as important as the experience, said Barrett Heisten, the North Stars' head coach.
"In Alaska, we don't get the competition that a lot in North America do, so for us to play, we need to travel," said Heisten, noting the team is strategic in looking to play in hockey hotbeds like Toronto and Detroit. He said he knew of a team from Alaska who competed in the Mississauga Border Battle last year, so his team applied -- successfully -- to play in the event this season.
"For us to travel 4,000 miles just to get five games ... we wanted to bring more value to it, so we wanted to come out here and pick up two or three exhibition games for the kids to get exposure to see what AAA hockey is because we don't get that back home," said Heisten, a first-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the 1999 NHL entry draft.
North Stars player Bryston Monrean echoed the sentiments of many of his teammates: "Coming to Canada is a blast and we were excited to come play harder, challenging teams," he said. "We are in AAA in Anchorage Alaska and doing pretty well there and we thought coming to Canada would boost our confidence up, make us do better and hopefully push us to be a better team and for our team to start bonding better."
Predators coach Dave Bressette was impressed by the American visitors. "They definitely have a great skating team," said Bressette. "It was fun to play a team that was willing to come that distance to play us. What a great experience that is for the players on both teams."
Preds captain Cole Patey agreed. "It was cool to be able to play a team that we don't normally get to play," Patey said after the game. "I think that any time that you get exposure to new teams, that's good."
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