The Yukon Mens' Hockey Team made Canada Games history this year when they became the first territories team to defeat a province in hockey, and a former Yorkton Terrier was part of the huge win.Wade Klippenstein was among the Yukon team's coaching staff as they defeated Newfoundland 2-1 in Halifax in February.
"Our goalie (Nigel Sinclair-Eckert ) made about 45 saves doing it," said the former Terrier coach who was with the local team the year Yorkton hosted the Royal Bank Cup (2005).
Team Yukon was in a pool with the North West Territories, Newfoundland and PEI, so were competitive.
"We were the first territory team to beat a province in hockey," he said, adding it was only the Yukon's second ever win in hockey at the Canada Games, having edged the NWT in overtime when the Games were held in Whitehorse.
It was hoped Yukon could win two games this year, but lost 3-2 to the NWT in a big game.
Klippenstein said the win was one hockey in Yukon can build on moving forward.
Klippenstein, currently director of player personnel and assistant GM for the Prince George Cougars said just being part of the Canada Games was special.
"It was a fantastic experience. I really enjoyed it," he said, "from the opening ceremonies to the first hockey game to just being part of the athlete's village."
Klippenstein said his involvement came about following a chance meeting at a hockey school in Lethbridge. He said he ended up talking to someone involved with putting together the Yukon's under-16 team for the Canada Games.
"Nobody up there really wanted to pick the team," he said, noting everybody knew everybody so well, making cuts would have been tough.
So after the meeting the Lethbridge school called Klippenstein and asked for his help.
"I flew up to Whitehorse in September," he said, adding he was expecting a typical hockey try-out camp with 50 or 60 hopefuls on the ice.
Instead, there were only about 30 players, and the Canada Games roster allowed for 23 players.
Klippenstein said while there are minor hockey programs in communities such as Watson Lake and Haines Junction, but for the Games team all the try-outs were from Whitehorse. He added Midget players in Whitehorse don't even have a division of their own, playing in a mens adult safe league.
"They just try to get games where they can," said Klippenstein.
Klippenstein said the talent level in terms of hockey in Yukon is limited based simply on numbers, with a total population of less than 35,000 (2010 numbers).
"Up there they didn't have enough kids (Midget-aged)," he said, adding as a result they had "six kids that were still Bantam."
While having Bantam players made them younger than other teams in Halifax, it also made preparation tougher, since they couldn't enter Bantam tournaments, and were badly disadvantaged in a Midget setting, said Klippenstein.
"It was challenging for us, but we found some teams to help us," he said,Klippenstein said he did manage to arrange a few exhibition games in southern Alberta.
Team Yukon beat an AAA Bantam team, and Klippenstein noted, "Bantam AAA is actually very good in Alberta."
Then an AA Midget team schooled the northern team.
"We got spanked. It was a double digit loss," said Klippenstein.
At the Games itself Klippenstein said he was basically a coaching consultant, since he was not a native of the Territory.
"I was on the bench," he said, adding he actually watched the first couple of periods of the games from the stands, then would go to the bench to help make some adjustments in the third.
