Norquay Knights featured on The Big Breakfast , CityTV - "Amazing Inner City Underdogs Battle Back"  March 28/11

Underdog hockey rookies true Cinderellas

Fledgling North End squad on shocking playoff run

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 03/16/2011 1:00 AM |                 

At the start of the season, some of them could barely skate, never mind stick-handle or dent the twine with a wrist shot.

Now, the last-place North End's Norquay Knights have become the Cinderella of sports -- winning six games in a row, taking a run at the championships and putting the naysayers in their place.

"We were the bottom-feeder," laughed Nicole Braun, manager of the minor Atom A3 Winnipeg Minor Hockey Association's Norquay Knights.

"The kids have never played on a team," said Braun, whose nine-year-old son, Evan, just learned to skate last year. "At the beginning of the season, they were all over the place. Now they've learned the rules and how to play."

Her son Evan, a Grade 4 student, was almost breathless talking about Monday night's cliffhanger. The Knights were down 2-0 to Selkirk.

"My friend Steven, he had the puck, he was on a breakaway and he crashed into the goalie. (The puck) went in and he didn't know it."

And the next goal was thrilling -- not just because it tied the game, said his mom. The player who scored, Michael Henderson, normally plays defence.

"He wasn't in his normal zone but he got the puck and went for it," she said. "He was super-excited."

Again, the underdog team came back.

Coach Will Hudson said his team is proving they're not just another inexperienced North End team taking a shellacking from south-side kids who sprang from generations of organized hockey.

"We are a Cinderella team and the clock hasn't struck midnight yet," he said before Tuesday night's game that might have seen them eliminated.

"My kids have character, they have heart."

Some of the teams they've beaten can't believe it.

"We have people calling in to complain 'Check their roster,' " said Braun. They weren't expected to win, or get this far. "We're from the North End."

She'll take accusations of them bringing in ringers as a compliment. "It makes me feel really good and glad that it is legit," said Braun. "These are kids who're on the ice every night till the lights turn off. I know one mom who has two of the boys on the team and she's trying to get them off the ice playing in the dark. They love the sport."

The fledgling hockey mom is learning the basics, such as the definition of an icing call. "The ref blew the whistle and I had no idea what it was so I went home and Googled it."

The mother of three, who works part-time at Norquay School, says all the parents pitch in. "There was a fear at the beginning of how are the kids going to get to and from games and practices," Braun said. "These parents have pulled together" and formed a team of their own, she said.

"When our kids win, we go out to celebrate," she said.

Now they're planning a fundraiser/social April 16 at the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre to get team jackets and possibly to send the players to a summer hockey camp.

"Our community came together," said Norquay School principal Nancy Dyck.

"They want opportunities for their children. They want their children to be involved in healthy lifestyles. If we put it there, they'll take it.

"Every day we give students an update and the score and everyone cheers," she said.