By Peter Watts /

Each fall, more than 100 AAA Midget hockey teams embark on the road to the Telus Cup.

That road will end next month in Levis, Que., where the six surviving teams in the country will meet to crown a new champion.

The road through the Prairies passes through Morden, Man., April 1 to 4 with four teams gathering to decide one of those six spots in Levis.

The Pembina Valley Hawks are the host team in Morden, but the Hawks will be more than just a worthy host. They were second in the Manitoba league this season before knocking off Brandon and the Southwest Cougars in the playoffs.

“We’ve assembled a team composed of players from nine different communities in the area south of Winnipeg,” said team manager Myron Pinkerton. “Some of our players drive up to an hour each way, four days a week for practices and games. Goalies Tyler Oswold and Reid Peters have led the way for us.”

The surprise team in the regional may very well be the Eastmen Selects, who knocked off the Winnipeg Wild in the Manitoba semis.

The Wild had the league’s leading scorer in Jake Heisinger, but he went down with a broken leg in the first game of the series, and the Wild weren’t able to recover.

“We were fifth overall with four returning players,” said Eastman manager Ken Pushka. “We’ve gotten leadership and strong play out of both of our 16-year-old goalies, Brendan Edie and Isiah Plett.

“They’ve been comparable in both save percentage and goals against, although Brendan’s been getting more work lately and has been playing well.”

Like the Hawks, the Selects draw players from a number of communities in the area east and south of Winnipeg.

It’s a big commitment to spend part of the winter on the highways commuting to and from the team’s home rink in Beausejour.

One player, forward Colin David, spent much of the winter playing high school hockey, but since his high school team’s season ended, he’s signed on to play with the Selects and has made a real contribution to the team’s post-season success.

The other two teams are the Thunder Bay Kings, champions of northwestern Ontario, and a yet-to-be-named team from Saskatchewan. The Notre Dame Hounds and Saskatoon Contacts are the two finalists out of the Saskatchewan AAA Midget league.

Neither Eastman nor Pembina Valley has ever medaled at the Telus Cup – in fact, Pushka can’t recall an Eastmen team ever getting to the national championship.

Given the commuting involved in being involved with either program, there’s a unique meaning to the word ‘drive’ on the road to the national final.

It would be quite a story if either was able to bring home the Telus Cup. It will be quite a story if either of them is able to get through Morden successfully.

Previous editions of the Kings, Hounds and Contacts have all won the national title at least once.

And if either is able to win it all, it will be quite the tour for the Telus Cup.