NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers prospect and SAHA defenceman Matthew Paranych dances on the blue line in SAHA's 6-0 championship win at the Circle K Classic.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Medicine Hat hockey fans should be dialled into the 2023 Canada Winter Games.
The national games held in P.E.I. get underway this long-weekend with 11 different events starting up, including hockey. The opening ceremonies are Saturday at 4 p.m. MST and the men’s U16 kicks off the games and runs until Feb. 25, with the women’s U18 games starting Feb. 28.
Medicine Hat hockey is well represented in the men’s tournament, with local product and South Alberta Hockey Academy forward Ryan Miller representing Alberta alongside Medicine Hat Tigers prospects Hayden Harsanyi, Kadon McCann, Matthew Paranych and Jordan Switzer.
McCann, who was named captain of the Alberta squad, is excited to represent his province.
“It’s always an honour to put on the a jersey with an Alberta logo on it,” McCann said. “The Alberta Cup and Alberta Winter Games are huge honours but this is something else. It’s an honour and hopefully we can do it with a gold medal.”
The group of five local based talents have played together on Team Alberta before, taking part in the Alberta Cup and provincial Winter Games. Paranych says it’s a good group that has only one goal in sight, to win it all.
“We have probably the most balanced team in the whole tournament from what I’ve been hearing,” Paranych said. “We’ve got great grit, we’ve got really good skill, we’ve got size and speed. I think we’re going into this tournament, we’re going there to win.”
Team Alberta opens their tournament Sunday with a 9:30 a.m. contest against Nova Scotia. They face Ontario on Monday at 1 p.m. and wrap up the preliminary round against British Columbia with an 9:30 a.m. contest on Tuesday.
McCann says he is looking forward to facing Ontario for the first time in his young hockey career.
“I’m super excited to play them, it’ll be quite the competition,” McCann said. “I’ve never really played them or Quebec before because they’re on the other side of the country. It’s going to be really cool to see the competition out there and see how they play in different provinces.”
He’s also looking forward to the potential of facing fellow Tigers prospect Gavin McKenna, who will be representing Team Yukon at the tournament. McKenna has been named the flag bearer for Yukon in the opening ceremonies and is looking forward to making his debut in the territory’s jersey.
“It’ll be a good experience, getting to play with some guys who I’ve played with before and haven’t played with for a while,” McKenna said. “To play with them will be awesome and just representing where you’re from is definitely a cool experience.”
Team Yukon has an extra team in their pool giving them four preliminary games, starting Sunday with a 6 a.m. game against Nunavut before facing the Northwest Territories on Monday at 4:30 p.m. They have two games Tuesday to wrap up the round, taking on P.E.I. at 6 a.m. and Newfoundland at 4:30 p.m.
The Yukon is chasing their first win in the tournament, an honour McKenna says he is hoping to be a part of and sees them making it out of the pool.
“It’ll go down in history for Yukon and will be a huge accomplishment for us,” Mckenna said. “Hopefully moving forward in hockey in Yukon it will bring some attention to the game and get some more high talent coming in from there.”
The Canada Winter Games features an impressive alumni list when it comes to hockey, boasting the likes of Hayley Wickenheiser, Nathan Mackinnon, Sidney Crosby and others.
“It falls every four years, so we were lucky for our year,” McKenna said. “There have been some huge names in this tournament, so to be a part of that and get the opportunity to play in a tournament as big as this for the Yukon, it’ll be awesome.”
