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HALLOWEEN CHILDREN’S EVENT
Fri. Oct. 16th @ 6 p.m.
Join Cindy Cook From TV’s beloved children’s series THE POLKA DOT DOOR for Halloween Fun! Costume contests, singing, dancing and lots of prizes!
1380 2nd St East, Cornwall
Local Novice Skaters Welcome Cross-ice Program By Todd Anderson
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new cross-ice 4-on-4 project, introduced to local District 2 novice hockey players in September at Cornwall’s Benson Centre, was well received by most people involved. “The general feedback has been positive,” says Cornwall Minor Hockey League President Pat McLeod, a driving force behind the program. “Parents are seeing their kids are coming off tired and excited. Players are touching the puck more often than in a full ice game. The strongest players are still the players who are touching the puck the most; however, I have seen new skaters have an opportunity to touch the puck as well. In a regular game, they would not be able to keep up. Some parents, prior to the program, believed that players should only play full ice games. Although there are still some who believe this, many have seen the merits of this pre-season program.” Last season Hockey Eastern Ontario invited minor hockey associations to travel to Ottawa to hear about the qualities of the threezone 4-on-4 project. The idea was to help solve ice shortage issues. After listening to the presentation, McLeod thought it would be a great opportunity to utilize ice in a better manner. “In novice, a game lasts 50 minutes. Approximately 20 of those minutes, the puck is with the referee, dropping the puck or picking it up, or waiting for line changes, etc. That means there is only 30 minutes of play time. With two lines per team, players only see about 15 minutes of ice time in a game. With this 4-on-4 program, players are playing hockey for 27 minutes out of a 30-minute game. It’s like playing two games.” When McLeod returned from the Ottawa presentation, he brought forth the idea to the CMHA executive
By dividing the rink surface into three smaller sections, players have more touches of the puck and action Photo:Todd Anderson is non-stop.
and then to District 2 officials. According to McLeod he received overwhelming support from the league presidents. McLeod says a Hockey USAstudent showed favourable results with this format compared to traditional games. Among the highlights were: twice the amount of puck battles, six times more shots on net, twice the amount of pass attempts, five times more passes received, double the changes in direction of skaters, and an improvement of half a shot per minute to 1.5 shots on goalies per minute. “Although we are not keeping track of the stats or using any form of analytics, from observations, I would say these stats are even being exceeded,” says McLeod of the Cornwall sessions. “I am looking forward to our district meeting where all of the presidents will have a better opportunity to speak about the merits of the program.” While McLeod likes what he sees,
he doesn’t feel this program would replace the way novice hockey is organized. “I do not see this replacing full ice hockey,” he says. “There is a lot of merit to noviceaged players playing full ice. I think we may see more 4-on-4 over the next few years but it will not replace full ice hockey at the novice level. I think this format would be excellent for IP tournaments.”
novice.”
McLeod has been on this ice himself during some of the 4-on-4 action, he has noticed not everything is perfect, but the setbacks have been minimal. “The use of the ice is phenomenal and there is very little wasted space. From a coaching perspective, it is hard to re-direct mistakes as kids are always moving, however, I am a strong believer that The program could be a great time on ice is more important than transition for young skaters moving listening to chalk and talk from your on from Initiation Programs to coach.” novice. “IP is such a structured level, then players come to novice and are McLeod notes, the boards that expected to play the exact same game divide the rink into three areas of as the pros,” says McLeod. “Hockey play were purchased by HEO minor is the only sport that believes seven- hockey for District 2. This means year-olds and professionals can play any District 2 association may use the same game with the same rules. the boards. CMHA is currently Tennis uses smaller courts. Soccer is storing the boards as host of the played cross field. Golf is played on 4-on-4 program. The rink crew, par 3 (holes or courses) and/or with with help from the City of Cornwall, bigger holes. Basketball is played currently can put the boards up with lower nets and smaller balls, in approximately 10 minutes and etc. I think the 4-on-4 program can remove them in five minutes. provide a better transition from IP to