Maple Leafshalt Rangers’

winning streakNEW YORK — Phil Kessel hadtwo assists to add to hisNHL-leading point total,and the Toronto MaplesLeafs snapped the New YorkRangers’ five-game winningstreak with a 4-2 victoryMonday.

The Maple Leafs scoredtwice in less than two min-utes to take a 3-0 lead earlyin the second period, thengave both goals back inanother quick burst later inthe period.

Jonas Gustavsson made12 saves in the third to pre-serve the one-goal margin,repeatedly turning NewYork away on a power playin the final minute beforeDavid Steckel scored anempty-net goal with fiveseconds left.

The Rangers had wonseven straight at home.Their only two regulationlosses at Madison SquareGarden this season are toToronto, which also won 4-2in New York’s home openerOct. 27.

Cody Franson, Tim Con-nolly and Joffrey Lupul alsohad goals for the Torontosquad.

Bruins 3 Penguins 1PITTSBURGH (AP) — GregoryCampbell, Benoit Pouliotand Tyler Seguin scored,Tim Thomas stopped 44shots, and the surgingBoston Bruins kept rollingwith a 3-1 win over the Pitts-burgh Penguins on Mondaynight.

Panthers 5 Capitals 4SUNRISE, FLA. (AP) — StephenWeiss scored two goals tolead the Florida Panthers toa 5-4 win over the Washing-ton Capitals on Mondaynight.

Senators 4 Lightning 2OTTAWA (CP) — Zack Smithscored twice and CraigAnderson made 31 savesMonday as the Ottawa Sen-ators defeated the TampaBay Lightning 4-2.

Storm has lineupof communityvisits this week

SUMMERSIDE — The Sum-merside Storm will be busyoff the court as well as onthis week.

The team’s full scheduleof community events thisweek, began last night whenthey visited the WilmotCommunity Centre in Sum-merside to help out with theKinsmen Christmas Appeal,broadcasting on EastlinkTV.

On Wednesday morningfrom 8 to 9, players are visit-ing Greenfield Elementaryin Summerside to serve uptoast and eggs in theschool’s breakfast program.

Wednesday evening, theteam will be participating inthe Lights for Life campaignat the Prince County Hospi-tal starting at 6:30 p.m.

The players will be hand-ing out 2,000 tickets to thosewho turn out to see thelighting display at the hospi-tal.

The Summerside Stormis always looking for newways to meet members ofthe community in whichthey play.

Interested parties canforward requests ton a t a l i a @ s u m m e r s i d e -storm.ca.

The Storm’s next homegame is Thursday, Dec. 8, at7 p.m. against the HalifaxRainmen.

The game will be broad-cast on Eastlink TV.

Coach back from worldsledge hockey win

McGuigan assistant coach with Canadian team which won World Challenge

BY STEPHEN BRUN

JOURNAL PIONEER

SUMMERSIDE — Canada’ssledge hockey team cappedoff a golden tournament overthe weekend, and some ofthe hardware is coming backto Summerside.

Team Canada defeatedthe United States 4-1 Satur-day at the World SledgeHockey Challenge finals inCalgary, capturing the inter-national tournament for thesecond straight year.

Summerside WesternCapitals head coach, BillMcGuigan, a native of Char-lottetown, served as an assis-tant coach for the team,while Summerside native Bil-ly Bridges once again donneda jersey for Team Canada.

“We played the Canadianway where we finished ourchecks, made good decisionswith the puck . . . and wescored on our opportunities,”said McGuigan, who’s servedas an assistant coach forCanada’s sledge hockey teamfor the past two years.

“To play the U.S.A., it’s areal hockey game and muchmore physical than able-bod-ied hockey.”

The gold-medal game wasbroadcast to a national tele-vision audience on TSN, atestament to the sport’sgrowth in popularity sinceHockey Canada becamesledge hockey’s governingbody in 2004.

“It’s become a real majorpart of Hockey Canada, andthey treat it like any otherprogram,” said McGuigan.

“Our general manager,Adam Crockatt, I view him asthe best in the world at whathe does. It makes your teampretty incredible.”

Canada and the U.S. haverecently seen challenges

from countries such as Japan,Norway and Russia, whichhave put together champi-onship-quality squads.

But the cross-border rival-ry with the Americans maybe the most heated in sledgehockey.

The U.S. defeated TeamCanada both at the 2009World Sledge Hockey Chal-lenge held in Charlottetown,and also at the 2010 Para-lympics in Vancouver.

“It was a real importanttournament for us,”McGuigan said. “The veteranplayers we had on our teamwho were part of theOlympic loss a couple yearsago in Vancouver. . . . were

still motivated from that. Wehave a great leadershipgroup — guys like GregWestlake, who had a hattrick in the final game, andBenoit St-Amand, the goalie.(Bridges) is key to our team,and he had another greattournament.”

McGuigan is encouragedby the sport’s growth in pop-ularity and stature aroundthe world, but also here onthe Island.

A group recently startedP.E.I.’s first club team, whichheld a fundraising game inBorden-Carleton on Satur-day night.

“You see the coverage (thesport) is getting on TSN . . .

and it’s good for the sport togrow and good to get the cov-erage,” he said. “These guysare becoming householdnames, and it’s an honour tobe involved in it.”

McGuigan hopes to bepart of Canada’s sledge hock-ey team when it takes part inthe 2014 Paralympics in Rus-sia.

Before that, Canada willplay in the Four Nations Cupin Japan in January, while the2012 IPC Ice Sledge HockeyWorld Championships willtake place in Norway nextApril.

sbrun@journalpioneer.com

Bill McGuigan, assistant coachfor Canada’s sledge hockeyteam. PHOTO COURTESY OF WWW.HOCKEYCANADA.CA

Team Canada winners of 2011 World Sledge Hockey Challenge.WWW.HOCKEYCANADA.CA

Summerside native Billy Bridges in action at the 2011 World SledgeHockey Challenge in Calgary, Alta. WWW.HOCKEYCANADA.CA

To play the U.S.A.,it’s a real hockeygame and much

more physical than able-bodied

hockey.Bill McGuigan, assistant

coach with Canadian team

SportsNational News A7-A8 • Opinion/Editorial A4 • International News A9-A10 • Entertainment B5 • Classifieds B7-B8 • Comics B6

Sports EditorJason Simmondsjpsports@journalpioneer.com www.journalpioneer.com

New RedWings

Junior hockey teamintroduces new players. Page B2

Journal PioneerTuesday, December 6, 2011B1

Stewart grew up cheeringfor Bulls’ dynasty

Al Stewart didn’t have tolook very far for basketballidols as a youngster.

Stewart grew up in Chicagoduring the Bulls’ run of six NBAchampionships in eight yearsin the 1990s.

“I was still in elementaryschool then, but I still remem-ber it like it was yesterday,”said Stewart. “My family usedto take in Bulls’ games whenwe were young.

“I was a big Michael Jordanfan, and am still a big Bulls’ fanto this day.”

Stewart, the starting pointguard for the SummersideStorm of the National Basket-ball League of Canada, had a12.22 points-per-game aver-age through the team’s firstnine regular-season games.

“Any point guard has to bea leader, a coach outside of acoach,” explained Stewart. “I’vetaken on this role pretty muchthe whole time I’ve beengrowing up.”

Stewart, who relishes thechallenge of being a leader,began developing leadershipskills long before he playedcompetitive basketball.

“I’m the oldest of my sib-lings,” said Stewart, whodeveloped his basketball skillsin back alleys and attaching

make-shift baskets to trees.“When you were younger,

the bigger guys took over thecourts,” said Stewart.

“I was one of those playerswho wasn’t born with (natur-al) talent, but had to work atit. I look back today and seehow much I’ve learned, it’s

AL STEWARTPosition: Point Guard Height: 5-ft. 11-in.Weight: 170 lbs.College: Drake University (Des Moines, Iowa)Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

10

VS

N E X T H O M E G A M E

THURSDAY, DEC. 8 @ 7 p.m.

unbelievable.”For example?“When I started playing, I

didn’t have a left hand,”answered Stewart. “I’m right-handed, so when I wasyounger if I tried to make aleft-hand layup the ballwould go over the rim.

“Now it just comes offnaturally – ball-handling,dribbling, shooting. . .

To this day, I’m stilllearning things.”

Stewart’s journey toSummerside beganwith New York in theAmerican Basket-ball Associationafter he graduatedfrom college in 2007. He alsoplayed in the Premier Basket-ball League with Vermont andManchester, where he wasnamed defensive player of the

year.After

sitting outlast sea-son, Stew-

art receiveda call fromStorm headcoach JoeSalerno,

whocoachedhim in Ver-mont.

“I thoughtit (NBL of

Canada)would be a

good league tostart in again, andI’m pretty glad Icame,” said Stew-art. “Playing

under him is tremen-dous.”

POWNAL — The Mid-IsleRobert's Petro Canada Matrixblew away the competitionlast night when they travelledto Pownal to meet theGaudet's Auto Body Red Dev-ils.

The Matrix defeated the

home team 9-1 in the MidgetAAA Hockey League match-up.

Jordan Mayhew led theway for his team scoring apair of goals and adding anassist, while Spencer McAllis-ter also added two goals to

the Matrix total. The rest of the scoring was

evenly distributed among sixother Matrix members:Campbell Gallant (1-2), LukeMacKay, Brian Kelly, BradPower, and Aaron Nunn.

Tyler Baker scored Pow-

nal’s lone goal, assisted byMark Burke and PatrickCummiskey.

Mid-Isle had just a one-goal lead going into the sec-ond period, but broke awayin the second with threeunanswered goals. They

added four more in the finalperiod.

Sean MacPhee was in netsfor the win.

Saturday's game betweenKings County and Charlotte-town has been cancelled dueto the Pownal tournament.

Matrix continues winning ways in midget AAA hockey

NHL approvesrealignment

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. — NHLofficials approved a radicalrealignment plan Mondaythat will give the league fourconferences instead of sixdivisions and guaranteehome-and-home seriesamong all teams.

The board of governorsauthorized commissionerGary Bettman to implementthe proposal pending inputfrom the NHL Players’ Asso-ciation. It could be put inplace as early as next season.

The new plan tried toaddress as many concerns ofthe teams as possible, fromcreating more equitabletravel, to preserving rival-ries, to promoting the gameby having the biggest starsplay in every city every sea-son.