Auren Halbert powering host Canada in bid for sledge-hockey glory in home city
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 country-mates 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 (2-1) 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 defenceman 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.
“The last, I would say, three months, the light bulb's gone off for him,” continued Herrington.
“He's kind of figured out how he can impact the game from the back end. It's how can I put my fingerprints on the game? And now we start to see that he can be a Cale Makartype of player for us in all, because he's on the ice a lot and he's able to get to pucks that other guys can't.”
So far in the world tournament, Halbert's counted four goals and one assist in three games for Canada.
Not bad for a blue-liner, especially for one who's a recently-converted forward in Herrington's game plan.
“It was a pretty difficult switch for me at first,” admitted 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.
“I think my parents actually saw it on the news one day, so they're like, `We've got to try this out.' And they told me about it, and I had no idea what it looked like. I had no idea what to expect. And as soon as I was on the ice, I was all smiles — super excited.
“It was just about being able to be competitive and be around people that are in similar situations to myself. It gives me an outlet to really compete and to be the best version of myself.”
That version includes being 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 out-muscle people for 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 blue-line.
“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 my game that much better. I have a strength coach, Bryan
Yu, that I'm with here three days a week at Winsport. We train as hard as we can, and I think that's been the difference maker for me.
“You'll notice in this sport, the game-changer is being ambidextrous,” continued Halbert, who rented out a storage locker and put synthetic ice in it so he could improve his stick-handling 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.
“I think a really eye-opening on it for me was being cut from the Beijing Paralympics,” added Halbert.
“It just gave me a moment to kind of reset and be like, 'Oh, I need to work a lot harder to make myself noticeable on this team.' So all summer, I just worked out. I got on the ice as much as I could. Just showing the improvements now is pretty awesome for me.”