Great Surprise for the Minor Peewee AA Team

During the course of the September 21-23 weekend, the Gloucester Rangers Minor Pee Wee AA team traveled to southwestern Ontario to take part in the 14th edition of the London Jr. Knights AAA Tournament.  
Both players and coaching staff had reasonable expectations with respect to their possible achievements for the weekend. Fresh off a championship win of the Kanata AAA tournament, the Rangers met some of the stiffest competition of any team registered in the London tournament.  In fact, three of the four teams they met in the preliminary round ultimately acceded to the semi-finals; while the Rangers first round opponents, London Jr. Knights, went on to win their own tournament championship. 
For the Rangers, participating in this tournament allowed both players and coaches to assess and witness some of their age-peers highest performing hockey players from some of the top seeded North American teams. 
Apart from the challenging competition faced by the Rangers, the highlight of the weekend for the Rangers included a surprise dressing room visit, for a pre-game pep talk, by former NHLer ( Calgary, St Louis) and Hall of Fame inductee, Al MacInnis.  Participating in the tournament as head coach of the Minor Pee Wee AAA St Louis Blues, MacInnis stressed the importance of practicing skills both on and off the ice to achieve the highest possible performance level. He reminded the players that it was as a direct result of incessant practicing, using pucks his dad brought back from a local arena where he worked, that he became known as having the hardest slap shot in the NHL. With that, the weekend turned out to be a great learning experience and terrific team building exercise. All in all, as Rangers coach Guy Bourque stated, a great message to close off a successful pre-season for the Rangers, allowing them to carry that momentum and enthusiasm into the regular season.