Windspeaker Sports Briefs - March 2015

Aboriginal curlers sought for nationals

Organizers of the 2015 National Aboriginal Curling Championships are hoping to attract 48 teams to this year's event. The national bonspiel will be staged April 2 to April 6 at the Granite Curling Club in Saskatoon.

The Canadian event will feature a men’s division, with a maximum of 32 teams, and a ladies’ category, with as many as 16 entrants.

Though the bonspiel is being held in Saskatoon, it is the northwest Saskatchewan village of Ile-a-la Crosse, located almost 500 kilometres away, that is organizing the nationals.
Town officials are organizing the event in conjunction with the Sakitawak Development Corporation, the Ile-a-la Crosse Friendship Centre and the Ile-a-la Crosse Communications Society Inc. 
Besides the opening ceremonies, the first day of the national bonspiel will also include a youth clinic. 
Those looking to participate in this year’s Canadian bonspiel must register before March 25. 
The registration fee is $500 for men’s teams and $400 for those in the ladies’ division. 
The participants, however, will have plenty of opportunities to win back more than their registration fees. Organizers are planning to award more than $22,000 in cash prizes to the top eight finishers in each category. 
The men’s champions will be awarded $4,000 while the female winners will take home $2,000. 
Even those that finish fifth through eighth in both categories will win back double the amount of their entry fees; $1,000 for men’s teams in these positions and $800 for their female counterparts. 
More information is available at the website www.nationalaboriginalcurlingchampionship.com or by calling (306) 833-7719 or (306) 833-7857.

A bit of lacrosse history will be made in a Six Nations community mere days before it is made south of the border as well.  At least five teams will compete at the Under-19 International Lacrosse Festival, which will be held this September in conjunction with the world men’s indoor lacrosse championships. 
The under-19 tournament, scheduled for Sept. 11 to Sept. 13 will be held at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena, located near the Six Nations town of Ohsweken. It will be the first international tournament to be contested on Haudenosaunee land.  
Organizers are hoping to have between six and eight teams take part in this event. So far, entrants that have agreed to take part are the host Iroquois Nationals, Canada, United States, Israel and the Czech Republic. 
As for the world men’s tournament, it will also be historic, as parts of it will be held on Haudenasaunee land for the first time. All preliminary-round and quarter-final contests will be staged at the Onondaga Lacrosse Arena near Syracuse, from Sept. 18 to Sept. 23. 
The tournament will then shift to Buffalo’s First Niagara Center from Sept. 25 to Sept. 26, where the semi-final, medal games and matches which determine final placing for teams from fifth through eighth will take place.

A 19-year-old Cree defenceman managed to star in a pair of different Junior A hockey leagues this season. Khadyn Butterfly, who is from the Moose Cree First Nation in northern Ontario, began the 2014-15 campaign with the Sudbury Nickel Barons. Butterfly had also spent the previous two seasons with the Nickel Barons, members of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. 
Butterfly was chosen to represent the NOJHL this past November at the Central Canada Cup All-Star Challenge in Toronto. The eight-team tournament featured players representing Junior A leagues from across Ontario and Quebec. 
Butterfly played four games in that tourney and finished in a three-way tie for team scoring for the NOJHL side, by earning three points (all assists). 
The following month Butterfly’s rights were traded to a squad in another league, the Hamilton Red Wings, who participate in the Ontario Junior Hockey League. 
The Red Wings became the third junior franchise that Butterfly has suited up for. That’s because last season he also appeared in three games with the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves. 
Following his trade this season, besides joining the Red Wings for the remainder of their season (the Hamilton squad did not qualify for its playoffs), Butterfly was also selected to compete in a rather prestigious contest. 
He was one of 40 players from across the country that took part in the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s Prospects Game, staged Jan. 20 in Oakville, Ont. 
Butterfly suited up for Team East in that contest, which was edged 3-2 by their Team West opponents. 
All of the players in the game were chosen in consultation with officials from Central Scouting, which provides detailed analysis of all draft-eligible players to National Hockey League clubs.