Knights respectable in Regina

They wanted to question how good they really were. Their coach liked the answer.
A foray into the Prairies by the Fort Frances PeeWee ‘AA’ Knights didn’t translate into many wins, but their performance at last weekend’s Coca-Cola Western Canada PeeWee Championships in Regina revealed much promise for the rest of the team’s season.
“We went to see where we stacked up, and we stack up very well,” Knights head coach Mark McCaig said of his team’s 2-3 record in the tourney, which included them winning the ‘D’ division title with a 5-1 win over the Medicine Hat Royals.
“That was probably the best game we’ve played since Christmas,” said McCaig. “They’re a very good team, and we really outplayed them.”
The Knights lost 4-1 to the Regina Rangers before being beat 7-3 by the Edmonton Confederation Crush—the top-rated PeeWee team in Alberta.
“We had pretty much as many scoring chances as they did,” noted McCaig. “It’s just that when they got theirs, they buried them.”
A 3-1 loss to the Moose Jaw Warriors put the Knights at 0-3 before they etched their name in the win column with a 7-5 victory over the Regina Stars to set up their battle with the Royals.
Individual scoring stats were not available as of press time.
McCaig was amazed how well his team held up against squads with infinitely larger talent bases to choose their rosters from.
“This year when I picked the team, I had 23 kids try out,” said McCaig. “I talked to the coach of one Winnipeg team and he said they had 78 defencemen alone come to try out.
“For us to stay competitive with teams that have that much talent to choose from says we’re doing all right,” he added.
The Knights next travel to Brandon for a tournament Feb. 20-23.