Halbert chasing global gold on home ice
Defenceman leads Canadian para hockey team to world championship semifinals
Auren Halbert is embracing the 2024 World Para Hockey Championship at Winsport.
How can he not, given the circumstances?
The sledge hockey defenceman is playing at home in Calgary, chasing global gold with his fellow Canadians in front of friends and family.
“It means the whole world,” said the 21-year-old Halbert. “I've been training since I was eight years old to make this team. It was definitely a grind to get here. Every day, I wake up and I'm just super thankful to be where I'm at and to have opportunities I get on the national team.”
Those opportunities have manifested into a chance this weekend to earn world glory with Canada.
Halbert, who was born with a short left leg and had to have it amputated at birth, and his teammates are just two wins away from reclaiming a title they last held in 2017.
Unbeaten in the round robin after wins of 19-0, 10-0 and 5-1 respectively over Japan, Italy and Czechia, Canada (3-0) needs a semifinal victory Friday over China (2-1) at Winsport Arena (5:30 p.m., Hockeycanada.ca) and then a triumph in Sunday's gold-medal game — against either Czechia (21) or the juggernaut United States (3-0) — also at Winsport Arena (5:30 p.m., Hockeycanada.ca) to grab the championship for the fifth time in 25 years.
And the Canadians are glad to have Halbert in that bid for global glory.
“The thing that excites us about Auren is what he's achieved so far,” said Canada head coach Russ Herrington. “What Auren brings is he's got explosive speed and some terrific puck skills and shoots the puck pretty hard for a young guy. A lot of his growth we can attribute to the dedication that he shows off ice training and how hard he works in the gym, and it's really starting to pay off on the ice.”
So far in the world tournament, Halbert's counted four goals and one assist in three games for Canada.
Not bad for a blueliner, especially for one who's a recently converted forward in Herrington's game plan.
“It was a pretty difficult switch for me at first,” said Halbert of the move to defence two years ago. “I wasn't too comfortable in the position I was in and kind of just had to accept it and just know that my role on the team was now defenceman and just embrace that totally. So it's been a big learning experience for me, but I think playing forward has given me the advantage on defence, knowing what forwards are looking for to get into the zone.”
Just as long as he's in the mix, really.
Being a part of Canada's team has always been the goal for the Calgarian since finding the game at a young age.
“I sort of adapted to what I had,” Halbert said. “I used to play soccer growing up a lot. I played a little bit of street hockey here and there, and then eventually — I think it was when I was eight years old — I found sledge hockey and I fell in love.”
Halbert is one of the fastest guys on the ice, among his other many traits.
Herrington, for instance, loves his strength on defence.
“He can be up the ice and still be the first guy back and outmuscle people for the puck,” said the coach.
And Halbert considers himself to be gritty — perfect for a heavy contact sport he loves to play in trying “to not let anybody past the blueline.”
“That's my main goal,” Halbert said. “But since I got in the sled, I've always kind of been pretty quick. But I think playing for so long and training with the people that I have the opportunity to train with has just made my game that much better.
“… You'll notice in this sport, the game-changer is being ambidextrous,” added Halbert, who rented out a storage locker and put synthetic ice in it so he could improve his stickhandling skills before the last Olympics. “You've got to be able to pass and shoot with your left and right hand, so I noticed that my left hand was a pretty big weakness for me. So I just worked on that as much as I could. And that's been huge for my game.”