Kids on the MHL’s Erindale Spitfires were in seventh heaven

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While there may have been no joy in Beantown Saturday night, there were hockey players in seventh heaven in Mississauga earlier in the day.

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Sometimes we all need to hear a positive story. One player scoring seven goals in a game is certainly better than a lot of the stuff I usually write about.

In overtime in Boston when the losing Toronto Maple Leafs needed a goal, my son and I were thinking too bad Coach Craig Berube didn’t have Kyle Williams in the lineup.

He, after all, had a better game Saturday than Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander combined.

At least in his Mississauga Hockey League game.

While Kyle, 12, a member of the Erindale Spitfires house league team, is a long way from the NHL, he had a performance Saturday at the Erin Mills Twin Arenas that was NHL-like.

Seven goals.

He scored all seven goals in his team’s 7-5 win over the spirited Heartland Dragons in what was a great game. There was no stopping Kyle on this night.

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“We were all amazed. He was like magician. There was not stopping him,” said my son Josh, who’s on his team. “We knew he was good, but this was something else.”

All of the kids were so excited that they had to get a picture to celebrate the moment. It’s just not every day somebody scores seven goals in a game — at any level.

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Coaches Tony Italiano, Harry Constantinides, Jay King and Kenny Gates brought out the seven pucks for a fun picture and made sure the kids got to be a big part of it because a lot of them assisted Kyle’s goals.

“It’s fantastic,” said Erindale Hockey Association Commissioner Scott Brooks.

This is what the volunteers hope for: Great moments.

Seeing the kids do well is why Scott does this. He coaches, too. And drops by every rink to see the kids and coaches pursue their passion. Members of the Erindale Spitfires are a giant family. That organization, and that whole Mississauga Hockey League, is all about making sure every kid gets the full hockey experience.

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Everybody is welcome.

This team is full of players who have never played hockey before and come from families where no one played. But they all get the chance to play here to develop into hockey players and become better people.

For example, Priya Nagarajan, 13, earlier this month, scored her first goal in her second ever game.

There’s stories like those of Priya and Kyle all over GTA hockey. Sure, there’s always talk of the NHLers around the rink, but there’s celebrating the MHLers an GTHLers, too.

During my long friendship with Don Cherry, he always told me the most fun he had was going to the minor hockey rink to watch kids chase their dreams. Only a few get to the show, but every one of them gets something special out of playing the great Canadian winter game.

An Associated Press story from earlier this year quoted a Bauer hockey equipment executive as saying, “the number of kids getting involved in hockey in Canada is spiraling downward … but nobody’s talking about that.”

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People are starting to talk about it now and work is being put into getting more kids into the game. The story said there had been a 22% drop in youth’s playing which saw it go from 523,785  participants 15 years ago to 411,818 players in 2022 during the pandemic.

Hockey organizations do what they can to help families with the cost of hockey and municipalities must remember that when they charge more for rink time, families will have a harder time keeping their kids in hockey.

Equipment swaps and more sponsorships will help.

In the media, we need to cover minor, junior and women’s hockey as much as we cover the NHL. The more talk about the game, the more interest will be generated.

Minor hockey is a blast –- for kids and for families. Hanging around the hockey rink is always fun. One thing that could make the experience even better is for rinks that closed their snack bars during the pandemic — replacing them with vending machines — to open the counters again.

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And whoever made the decision to eliminate hot chocolate, coffee, chocolate bars and french fries because they are not healthy choices, should perhaps reconsider. There’s just something about the atmosphere that a fully stocked snack bar at an arena that is part of Canadian hockey.

The crew at Toronto’s George Bell Arena set the standard for the arena experience, with the smell of popping popcorn, music between face offs and announcing players’names. In short, the arena creates an old-time hockey atmosphere everybody enjoys.

The key factor to all of these leagues are the volunteers who coach and help out in other ways.

As a hockey dad or mom or grandparent, you see that every time you go to the rink. The kids are learning sportsmanship, competition, teamwork, respect, discipline and the value of hard work while making friends for life and having an amazing time.

Plus, they get better as the season goes on.

Kyle, for example, had never scored a hat trick before this incredible game. So, he thought he would score two hat tricks –- plus one.

Kyle Williams wears No. 10 — just in case Berube is looking for a goalscorer in the next game.

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