Aaron Mercer was pretty pumped to get an opportunity to see how his pillow-stacking abilities match up with his counterparts on the mainland.
Mercer, a 13-year-old goaltender in the Corner Brook Minor Hockey Association, helped the Newfoundland Blizzard Dogs to gold at the 2014 Future Stars Cup held recently in Halifax.
The Blizzard Dogs posted a 3-0-1 round-robin record en route to top honours in the division for players born in 2001. The event featured seven championship runs, one for each birth year from 2001 through to 2007, and is considered one of the highest profile spring hockey tournaments in Eastern Canada.
The Blizzard capped off an impressive road trek with a 5-2 win over the New Brunswick East Coast Prospects in the gold-medal showdown.
“I think it was an awesome experience because in Newfoundland you don’t get that high calibre of hockey,” Mercer said earlier this week of the tournament. “I found it a lot of fun considering we won gold and each game was a challenge instead of a walk in the park.”
The Blizzard Dogs, a private entity under Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador president Jack Lee of St. John’s with a heavy presence of east coast players, also featured Corner Brook AAA peewee players defenceman Brent Eason and forward Will Keating, who had two goals in six games, including the game-winning tally in the championship game.
Mercer was between the pipes for three games, including a stellar performance in a 3-2 semifinal win over the Stars Silver of Nova Scotia. He also got the starting assignment in two round-robin games — a 2-1 victory over the Stars White of Nova Scotia and a 3-3 stalemate in a showdown against the New Brunswick V-Reds. Coady Dalton of St. John’s was the goalie on record for the other three games involving the Blizzard Dogs.
“It was awesome. I went there not expecting to win because I thought the teams were a lot better than us from what I heard,” he said.
Events like the Future Stars Cup are designed to give elite hockey players a chance to test their mettle against like-minded players who have a thirst for taking their game to another level.
That’s something that Mercer wants to embrace because he knows he can only improve his stock with a tough challenge.
“It helps you become a better player because you’re not used to it, and after you’ve faced it you know what’s coming for the next time,” said the son of Pasadena’s Greg and Rana Mercer.
Seeing other goalies turn in some solid games throughout the week was also an eye-opener for him. He realized pretty quickly Eastern Canada has a lot of steady goalies looking to find their way to bigger and better things and he couldn’t help but notice how much faster and agile they were.
“You have to try and match it or beat it,” he said.
Eason, meanwhile, shared Mercer’s sentiments about the positives that can be derived from playing in an elite tournament where the competition is tougher and faster against some pretty darn good players.
“They give you a lot more competition than what’s down here,” Eason said. “Anything is possible when you go up there though. If you put your heart into it, you can do it, and we did.”
Eason, son of Corner Brook’s Dave and Melissa Eason, picked up a goal and two helpers from his blue-line position over the six games. It was nice to make a contribution, he said, and it was certainly a lot of fun playing on a big stage.
“That was probably one of the best experiences of my life, especially not playing with most of these guys before. It was a real big accomplishment,” he said.
Being able to get away from home and play hockey with a bunch of new teammates is a big reason why young hockey players champ at the bit to play in showcase events such as the Future Stars Cup. However, it’s also about seeing the areas of the game an individual must work on in an effort to catch up to the pack.
One lesson learned by Eason is the importance of realizing participation in an off-ice program is equally important as shooting pucks and dangling in a confined space. Eason knows he has some work to do over the summer. It won’t be a summer of surf and sand if he wants to be a better defenceman when the 2014-15 hockey season gets underway in October.
“Going up there they’re really physical so the stronger you are the better,” he said.
