Final push
Regals, Miners running away from the field in contest voting
The Alberton Regals peewee A hockey team has until Friday at 1 a.m. Atlantic to get as many votes as possible in online contest.
For Brandon MacDougall and his Alberton peewee A Regals teammates the fun just keeps coming.
“We didn’t win all the games, but we had a fun year just playing and going to the gym and just having a good year being friends,” said MacDougall, the team’s captain.
In late February, the team participated in a food drive in support of the West Prince Caring Cupboard. They collected more than 350 pounds in donations, valued at more than $1,000.
“I thought that would be fun, because, ‘just go, have a day with the team, go door-to-door and have a fun day,’” he assessed the experience.
But it’s been much more than that.
The campaign formed the basis of the Regals’ entry in the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup. A panel of judges named the Regals the P.E.I. finalist in the 11team national competition. That gave them $2,000 for their team and $7,000 for the charity of their choice and put them in the running for the national grand prize that jumps to $10,000 for the winning team, $15,000 for the charity of their choice and $5,000 each for the local and provincial Hockey Canada branch.
The winning team also gets treated to a party in their home arena, hosted by Chevrolet’s Power of Play ambassador Ryan Smith. Segments from the party will be aired during
an NHL playoff sportscast this spring.
“It’s pretty exciting,” MacDougall says of the possibility.
Of course, to win the prize, the Regals have to overtake Glace Bay Miners from Cape Breton, N.S., in online voting.
The Miners and Regals have been skating way ahead of the other regional finalists throughout the competition. The Miners held the lead consistently until Thursday when the Regals took over first place briefly. It’s been back and forth ever since.
At 5 p.m. Monday the Miners had 67,471 votes to the Regals 66,133. Third-place Kanata Blazers had 9,577 and Humboldt Broncos were fourth with 3,498. Kenzie Wadden, coach of the
Glace Bay Miners, said everyone in Glace Bay is pumped for the final week of voting. Online voting ends Friday at 1 a.m. (Atlantic time). It’s been a fun experience, he admits.
“I never heard of Alberton, P.E.I., before, and I bet you people from Alberton never heard of Glace Bay, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia,” he said. “Just that, alone, is awesome.”
Rock stars
“I know our boys, and I know their team probably feels the same way, too: they’re rock stars in their community.”
Regals coach Mitch Illsley agrees with Wadden that the competition is all about the kids, and he communicated that in a
Facebook Messenger exchange with Wadden on Sunday. “No matter of the outcome, we’re proud of everyone who participated,” Illsley said. “The communities all need the youth to step in, the way things are going in today’s world. It’s nice seeing the kids getting out in the community. We both agreed on that,” he related.
Both coaches said volunteers are in place to encourage people once a day per device until voting closes. The Regals were going to be handing out flyers at the junior B playoff game in Wellington Monday night seeking new voters.