The London Junior Knights Minor Peewee AA White is a new team to the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario. The team features players from a wide variety of leagues, and head coach Don Ikeno explains why …
“Although I could have just selected former LJK AA players, I had noticed the potential of a number of other players that had not played at this level of hockey in the past,” Ikeno said.
Although the team has only recently formed, coach Ikeno says the players are already clicking.
“Every time we have a practice or a game, one of the players will say or do something that is funny,” he said.
The team has a lot of goals for the season. The main ones include winning the Alliance regular season league championship, and winning the Alliance Constellation (AA) Championship. Another major goal for the team is qualifying for the International Silverstick so that the players can be able to play the best teams from around Ontario and the US.
Besides winning, another aim for the team is to develop the player’s skills and knowledge of the game. So far, the message seems to be clicking as the program has enjoyed a lot of success. They won the Detroit Back-to-School tournament in September by going undefeated, and also enjoyed a stretch of 19 straight games without a loss. But the biggest win so far for the program has been the defeat of the ultimate winner of the Scotiabank Cup, a team that is in the top 25 in the AAA Ontario Rankings.
