Puck drops tonight
Host Windsor takes on QMJHL champion Saint John in first game
Having Prince Edward Island’s three judo clubs working together in building a provincial team is paying dividends, suggests provincial team manager Brian Nash.
“We’ve realized that, as a small club, a lot of our athletes, don’t have anybody locally to compete against, or they’re always competing against the same person,” said the provincial manager during a recent group session at the Lennox Island club. “It’s really been a concerted effort to try to work as a team with more support to our athletes. We’re seeing success.”
Team P.E.I. is sending 10 judokas to the national championships from May 24 to 28 in Calgary, Alta.
Nash said the provincial team set a goal last year of, within three years, having 30 per cent of its athletes attending regional- and national-level competitions making the podium.
“We’ve already achieved it this year,” he said, noting 62 per cent of the athletes on the provincial team who attended the Eastern Canadian championships won medals. Mikey Perry, Charlottetown, and Lydia Enman, Lennox Island, hold the Team P.E.I. banner for fellow provincial team members who will be attending Canadian judo championships from May 24 to 28 in Calgary, Alta. Standing from left: Turner Moore, Lennox Island; Kent Hardy, Charlottetown coach; Lennox Island and provincial team head coach Robin Enman; Loren Enman, Lennox Island; Chris Townsend, Summerside coach and provincial team assistant coach; Emma Vanwesterneng, Charlottetown; Sebastian Nash, Summerside; Mackenzie Hambly, Summerside and Ellen Gillis, Summerside. Missing from photo are George Madumba, Summerside, and Dylan Shepherd, Charlottetown.
the other two clubs will help him in a class with 22 other judokas at nationals.
Ellen Gillis is heading to her first national after 2 1/2 years in the sport.
“I’m trying to push myself harder because this is a big tournament,” said the Summerside club member. She’s already familiar with one of the five athletes she could face at nationals.
She described the group training sessions as awesome.
“It gets me excited and it’s just really fun to be with everybody practising.”
Nash shares Gillis’s
“The wonderful thing I love about judo, from a personal perspective, is when you watch a competition, you can see competitors go head-to-head, and you know they’re giving it their all to try to beat the other person,” continued Nash. “But at the end of the match, they bow to each other, they shake hands and, within the three clubs, they definitely leave as friends.” excitement.
If there was a silver lining for Logan Stanley after an injury cost him half his Ontario Hockey League season, it was knowing his Windsor Spitfires would be hosting the 2017 Memorial Cup.
The hulking six-foot-seven, 230-pound defenceman will play his first hockey in four months when the Spitfires open the 99th edition of the major junior national championship on Friday against the Saint John Sea Dogs.
Stanley returns after suffering a knee injury in January and gives the hosts a much-needed boost against the three league champions that round out the four clubs participating for the Canadian Hockey League’s top prize.
“Now that we’re healthy and have everyone in our lineup it makes us a better team,” said the 18-year-old Stanley. “Those three teams are real good but we know we can compete with them and can win. We’re ready to go.”
Stanley, who was selected 18th overall in the 2016 NHL draft by the Winnipeg Jets, completes a well-rounded defensive core that Windsor will need. Joining the host Spitfires and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Sea Dogs are the OHL champion Erie Otters and Western Hockey League champion Seattle Thunderbirds.
The Waterloo, Ont., native went down in mid-January and didn’t begin on-ice sessions until April. Now that Stanley is healthy and “feeling great,” Windsor has four top-quality blue liners to toss out against the opposition, including 2016 first-round pick Mikhail Sergechev (No. 9, Montreal) third-round selection Sean Day (No. 81, Rangers), who was acquired in an early-season trade from the Mississauga Steelheads, and Jalen Chatfield, who signed an NHL contract as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks.
Windsor was eliminated in the first round of the OHL playoffs in seven games by the London Knights and have had six weeks to prepare for the Memorial Cup.