J.R. Rardon

Gazette staff

PORT HARDY — As former players in the North Island Eagles rep hockey system, coaches Bill Rushton, Al Rushton and Ray Bono were dismayed to see the tiny turnout on the first day of midget tryouts in September.

But with the Tier III program on the brink of folding for the 2008-09 season, it received a glimmer of good news during a pair of home games last weekend.

After three of the midgets’ 10 skaters were suspended while collecting late penalties in a 4-2 loss to Cowichan Valley Saturday, five players from the Port McNeill Minor Hockey house program agreed to pull on Eagles sweaters for one day and acquitted themselves well in an 8-2 loss Sunday to Tier I Oceanside.

“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Bill Rushton, who takes over as head coach of the midgets after serving as an assistant last season and as a bantam assistant before that. “We got some positives out of this. We’re right on the verge of being a ‘go’.”

The midgets are not out of the woods yet, though, and are still calling on local players who might sign on to help out the program this season.

One player from last year’s squad has talked to Rushton about returning. And while all five of the Port McNeill players who were carded for the single game Sunday — Clayton Desrosiers, Lucas Woo, Stirling Bernier, Brenden Voysey and Zach Bye — are unlikely to join for the season, even one or two of them signing up would be a big help.

The program has already promoted defenceman Lucas Grayson from the bantam team to help fill a void.

The Vancouver Island Hockey League will let the midgets continue to play with a short bench through the remainder of tiering games this month. But they will likely need at least 14 skaters to be approved for league play starting in November.

“It’s not only a commitment from the players to compete at the rep level, but also from the parents,” Rushton said. “It’s an expense, mostly because of all the travel that’s required.”

The low numbers are the result of a confluence of factors. Three former Eagles — Cam McCarrick and Dylan Dirom of Port Hardy and Jack Kennelly of Port Alice — were signed to play for the major midget North Island Silvertips in Nanaimo this season. Another, Port Hardy’s Shelby Cockell, is playing for the Junior B Storm of Campbell River.

Several other former players elected not to return to rep hockey, or were away at work. And the team got very little bump from last year’s bantam team, which itself barely had enough players to qualify for a spot in the Vancouver Island Hockey League.

“We played midget hockey with the Eagles, so when Bill asked us to come aboard we said, ‘Let’s go,’” said Bono, who with Al Rushton is a first-year coach in the program. “Then we had nine kids come out to tryouts. It was a little frustrating.”

Players considering signing up for the program can call Allison McCarrick at 250-949-7119 or Doug Bondue at 250-284-6247.

Lake Cowichan 4, Eagles 2

Quinn Mellow, in his first full season with the Eagles after seeing ice time as an affiliate player last season, scored both Eagles goals in the loss, in which the midgets amassed 62 penalty minutes and had three players ejected. Will Jacques assisted on both goals and Cole Schneider had a single helper, while Andrew Senciw manned the goal.

Oceanside 8, Eagles 2

Mellow found the net again and Jacques set up both scores before the midgets were overwhelmed late in the contest. Mellow’s wrister from the right circle after Jacques won a faceoff tied the contest 1-1, and the Eagles were still within 2-1 at the halfway mark.

Desrosiers, one of the five house skaters signed for the contest, slipped behind the Oceanside goalie to grab the rebound of a Jacques shot and spun to fire it home to make it a 4-2 game at 1:48 of the third. The Port McNeill players had not taken part in a single practice with the rep team before lacing up the skates for Sunday’s game. Voysey also claimed an assist in the game.

“They don’t know our system, but they didn’t look out of place out there,” Bill Rushton said. “Conditioning is an issue, and you saw that in the third period.”

The visitors pulled away with four goals in the late going.