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Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1996-01-10, Page 13THE HURON EXPOSITOR, January 10, 101111-13 ANNA'S Dress Shoppe 527-0487 SEAFORTH Sewing Centre 527-1900 TOWN OF SEAF R. ' TH 527 (` r � i SEAFORTH INSURANCE 527-1610 TOTALWHITNEY-RIBEY IMAGE II 517-0780 Funeral Home 527-1390 ARCHIE'S Service Centre 527-0881 SPARKY'S PLACE Family Dining 527-1964 McKILLOP Mutual Insurance 527-0400 SEAFORTH JEWELLERS LTD. 527.-0270 PETE'S Paper Clip 527-1681 Seaforth COOP 527-0770 VINCENT Farm Equipment 527-0120 - 1 1 996 NATIONAL You V e come a long way JUNIOR MIKE WATT of The photo below was .Egmondville warone of 22 taken at Michigan State A N A oA TEAM very happy Canadians University , in East singing the national anthem Lansing where Mike is way out of tune on national now in his sophomore television Thursday night.season with the hockey He is a member of S Canada's National Junior Spartans. Hockey Team, a team that s, f):, had just won this country's fourth -straight World Championship with a f- s . �... t " 4-1 victory over Sweden. �� .�. -; t The photograph to the left 1 `� ; . ° �. -- M,., .>x is of Mike the year he ',;t played for the Seaforth , ,� p y k� peewees, helping them win t !_ an OMHA championship. To the right is the picture q .r'" of Mike that appeared in r ; . Team Canada's media guide at the world champi- onships. because they were on the road BY GREGOR CAfv1P11El,1, at Alaska -Fairbanks. Expositor Staff They don't play this weekend r when Mike is coming home to .Mike watt wasn't born when " Seaforth, and will spend most Canada and Russia squared off ',� Atl' ! of Saturday at the local arena in their first great huckcyr sum signing autographs and drop- mit series in 1972. 4,„ ,, ping pucks. But those Russians still bringwre �. • `'" . �'`h- This is where he learned the out the best in nim. ,� � game, becoming the second nville - `__ ,> Seaforth hockey player to play The 19 -year-old Egnuul forward played his -best game for Canada's national junior by far lap Wednesday tui Rus =F ' ' , ; ,� team. Dave McLlwain ws the ton against the Soviets in the first,in 1987 88 when Canada semi-final, helping Tearnx r came home empty-handed. Canada to a 4-3 win on their "►� <. Mike helped two Seaforth way to a fourth -straight -World teams to Ontario Minor JuniorHock- Hockey,ey Association championships - Championship • ran interference setting the atoms coached by his up..a screen un Canada's first ; : father, John, in 1987-88 and goal in that lame, scored the the peewees, coached by Bill second and. assistcsl on. the 1 Weber and Jim Moore two trcfiri an eicciUng gaitr� wt� • "'*�► ,3' __:= later, in 1989-90. could have gone either way. £ ; - , Prior to that he helped the111. Some experts claim the Rus .r ' . , Seaforth novices go as far asaa sian juniors outplayed. the they could go in competition Canadians, in any case they ` '. (novices dont compete for out shot the defending champs OMHA championships), on teams coached by his father, 49 28. ° and another by Tom Papple. Mike says shots dot 't mean a He skipped bantam but lot if they come from a lung played midget the same year he way out.played every game for "With the speed and skill Seaforth's junior hockey Cen- under coach Bobg they had, if we they c playldthe Q Zimmer body on them ►hey could do a Zimmer in 1990-91, averaging lot of things w ith the puck that a point a game with 16 goals a • lot of teams in the tour- and 24 assists in 40 games. nament couldn't do," he says. Mike played the next three This might account fur the years for Stratford's junior B two penalties he took using all hockey Cullitons, and is now in of his 212 pounds in the third ' his second season with the period of that game, the first a Spartans, playing for the win- crushing blow that flattened a ningest coach in American fellow and forced the tactical college hockey history, Ron Russians to keep their heads up Mason, who also grew up in and think about other things. Seaforth. It marked the first time in b f -° He was named to the CCHA CARDNO'S Men's Wear 527-0596 HART Ford Mercury 527-1010 BOB & BETTY'S Gift and Variety . 527-1680 BOX• FURNITURE 527-0680 HILDEBRAND Fiowerg &Gifts t` 527-0555 MILTON J. DIETZ LIMITED. 522-0608 VESTMENT CENTRE 527-0420 1 SEAFORTH FOOD MARKET 527-1631 CANADIAN TIRE 527-1350record-tying ", HILDEBRAND PAINT & PAPER 527-1880. r j,� t VOUSSEY S -'Beauty Boutique • 527-2601 COLDWELL BANKER Linda Dzioba Mike Hodgins 527-2103 DELOITTE & TOUCHE Chartered Accountants 527-1331 TEATERO Motor Products 527-2291 CULLIGAN Real Estate Maureen & Lode• 527-1577 THE HOBBY SHOP 527-2010 THE BISTRO Restaurant 527-2911 PROGRESSIVE Turf Equipment Inc 527-1080 BOX &SMITH Funeral Chapel 527=1142 FAMILY EXPRESS 527-2994 ELLIGSENWatt Electric Limited 345-2447 -Yyears t z Insurance Agency 527-0720 �j L ' L• McG Plumbing & 522-0493 Heating Wayne & Harold SMI'T'H CONSTRUCTION LTD. 527-1079 t LEO S Auto Sales 527-0311 SEAFORTH Groce Store ry 527-2044 KIDS KLOZE -527-2320 , WILSON'S Auto Service 527-1200P SEAFORTH MANOR Nursing & Retirement Home 527-0030 • SEAFORTH GOLF & Country Club 522-0985 LAC London Agricultural Commodities Inc. 527-1241 three tries that the 6' 2" Mike was one of only four rookie all-star team last spring, graduate of the Seaforth minor championships set by the Rus -and is one of MSU's to 6 Sian juniors from 1977 to 1980. players from Ontario on this snipers this car, with nine and junior hockey systems, years team. Two players came y now a budding sophomore star Mike says he didn't get a lot ' from U.S. college ranks, one of goals and 14 assists. with the Michigan State of ice lime early in the tour -them him, and four other Mike was taken in the second University Spartans, has been [lament and it was kind of a players were from Quebec. round of the National Hockey on a Canadian [quit that beat wake -up -call, alter an excellent The rest of the team was League draft two years ago, the Russians. 11Tis was also training camp and offensive from out west. 32nd overall, by the Edmonton Mike's last shot at it, because Oilers, who also own the rights performances in exhibition "When you're going to pick g this is his final year of games leading up to the annual the best team you pick the best of another local hockey eligibility for international Chrisunas holiday world junior players, and its pretty obvious graduate, Rem Murray, now junior hockey. \ tournament. He sat down with they picked the right guys," playing for Cape Breton. In the first two tries, both the Canadian coaching staff Watt says. If you can lit it in, Mike two seasons back, Wan and after seeing the ice for only a "It was a lot of pressure. says, I'd like to thank Team Canada lust to the Rus- few shifts against the Swiss, Every time we hit the ice there everybody in Scaforth for sians in the annual Spengler and watched tapes of what he was a lot of expectation. We watching and supporting me." Cup in Switrerlaiid and in an was doing wrong defensively. were the team to beat. Mike will be signing international under- I8 tour-"Wc were really well autographs for Seaforth Minor nament in Japan. ' But then the flu bug hit the prepared and we just took Hockey Association players at Mike finished with a goa: tram and Watt gut more ice things shift -by -shift. The media the arena Saturday morning and four assists in the lar big- time against dee Finns and thewere all over us all the from 10 to 11:30 a.m. ger world junior tournament Ukraine. But the flu got him time...even the staff of the He will sign autographs for too before the end of the tour- hotel the general public from 3 l0 4 that just ended, carving a gold nautcnt" He says he couldn't "That little extra pressure can p m. Saturday night. medal with the rest of the y breathe against Sweden in the sometimes make or break a He will also be official) ulnad with a 4-1 win over final, and this accounts for the team," he says. dropping the puck between Sweden in Thursday night's "We kind of thrived on it." some would-be national junior final, which was Canada's somewhat oft` -key rendition of J 2- 20th-strai hl win dating back to "0 f'anadtt" he and his mates - Alter the celebrations Mikc team members, 11 and 12- 20th-straight g g sang after the typical wild flew to Detroit with the flu and years -old, at the Scaforth atom January 1993 thereby equalling celebration following their gold • then motored on to Lansing, game which gets underway at 6 the world record of four world rnedal win. ' where the Spartans weren't, p.m. that evening. 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