Winter arrives early and stays late on the plains of Northern Manitoba, and for the better part of a decade Jade Dewar would construct his own ice rink in his backyard in the town of The Pas.
Using plywood sheets as a frame and Christmas lights for illumination, Dewar created a rink roughly the size of the blue line to the end boards of a regulation-sized rink, complete with a net to corral errant hockey pucks.
It was on that makeshift rink that Dewar’s son, Connor, began skating as a four-year-old and where he would spend hours practicing both alone and with neighbors, friends and teammates.
“All the kids on my team growing up, every couple weekends they’d be over,” said Connor Dewar, now a 17-year-old forward with the Everett Silvertips. “My buddies would be over every weekend, sleeping over two nights if they could just be on the rink all day.
“There wasn’t much room, but I did what I could.”
Those days eventually came to an end after Dewar’s 13-year-old season. At 14 he billeted while skating for the Dauphin-based Parkland Rangers bantam team, and his mother moved to Dauphin while he spent his 15-year-old season with the Rangers midget AAA team.
Tonight marks a special evening for Dewar and the other half-dozen Manitoba natives on the Everett roster as the Silvertips take on the defending WHL champion Brandon Wheat Kings at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time in their biennial trip to take on the lone WHL team based in the “Friendly” province.
“It’s cool because they grew up playing in that building and watching that team,” Tips assistant coach Brennan Sonne said. “Being able to go into that building and play on that ice in front of family and friends is going to be really cool for all of them.”
A fan favorite
It’s become almost a cliche at this point — how growing up playing outdoor hockey in the brutal climate of the prairie provinces toughens up young players and teaches them the value of hard work.
But it rings true for Dewar and his fellow Manitobans who contribute on an Everett team that remains competitive due more to its effort and guile than to its size and skill.
“Today, his most important gift is his ability to work hard,” Jade Dewar told Scott Taylor of Winnipeg-based www.mytoba.ca two years ago. “When they say, ‘You have to put in the hard work,’ Connor knows that he does put in the work. You can’t teach hard work and determination and it comes naturally to Connor.”
His father’s words, spoken during Connor’s midget season, proved prescient as the five-foot-10, 170-pounder quickly became a fan favorite as a rookie in Everett last season. He scored during his very first WHL game in Everett’s 2-0 win at Prince George to open the 2015-16 season, and produced one of the year’s more memorable moments when he tied a game against Kelowna with a shorthanded goal that eventually forced overtime.
He finished his rookie season with 11 goals and seven assists, but points aren’t necessarily what the coaching staff is looking for.
“He’s always brought that work ethic, passion, fire,” Sonne said. “I think that describes him accurately. When you look at points that’s kind of a results-based thing and we’re not really results-based as much as process-based. So if Connor is bringing his energy and passion all the time he’s going to help the team.”
The goal to tie Kelowna epitomizes Dewar’s tenacity and has led Tips broadcaster Mike Benton to dub him “the Pitbull.”
Everett entered the third period trailing the Rockets 5-1, but fought back to cut the deficit to 5-4. While on the penalty kill with six minutes to play, Dewar out-raced a Rockets player to the puck and managed to fire off a shot that Kelowna goalie Michael Herringer initially saved. But the rebound came back to Dewar who managed, while falling to the ice, to slide the puck past Herringer to tie the game.
It wasn’t a particularly artistic goal, but rather a play made by sheer effort and determination.
“I kind of take pride in that,” Dewar said. “It goes back to the coaches I had growing up. They really didn’t so much preach skill or anything, but they preached hard work and where that’s going to get you in life.”
The ideal organization
When the Everett Silvertips took Dewar in the fifth round of the 2014 bantam draft he knew nothing about the “Warrior” mentality espoused by the Everett coaching staff. Yet organizations draft specific players for specific reasons, and Dewar now admits Everett is perhaps the best WHL organization for him in terms of matching his talents to a team philosophy.
“I didn’t realize that when I was first drafted by the Silvertips, but I’ve come to realize that,” he said. “I don’t know if there’s anywhere else in the league for me after playing here for (two) years.”
Sonne, who skates with the players in practice, likes to relate a story from last year when Dewar told Sonne he wasn’t hitting him hard enough enough in practice.
“I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’” Sonne said. “And he’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s not as hard as you can hit me, I’m sure. Hit me harder. I want to get ready for the game.’ That’s an example that he’s such a warrior even in practice when it’s coaches, guys that are out of shape, he wants to be hit, he wants to compete and he’s a warrior. ”
So much of a warrior that Dewar played all 72 regular-season games and all nine playoff games as a 16-year-old last season while earning the “Iron Man Award” and “Rookie of the Year.” The streak reached 132 games this season before Dewar missed his first game as a Tip last Saturday due to an upper body injury sustained the night before.
Dewar said whether or not he plays tonight will be a game-day decision.
You’ve got a good point
Dewar, Devon Skoleski and Bryce Kindopp have consistently started periods despite technically being considered the second line, though the concept of starting in hockey lacks some of the panache it carries in other sports since all 18 skaters generally see ample ice time.
“I think it’s the energy that our line brings,” Dewar said. “We’re really good on the forecheck I think, and are always buzzing. We’ve been pretty hot lately too in the past month.”
Since the week-long holiday break Dewar has six goals and seven assists for 13 points in 18 games. It’s a modest total, but a significant uptick from the dozen points he tallied in the 33 games prior to the break.
“The first half there were stretches where I kind of let too many people get to my head and too many negative thoughts,” Dewar said. “I went home for Christmas and just kind of relaxed and came back ready to work and close out the season hard.”
But points aren’t what he’s focused on. The Tips still lead the U.S. Division and now it’s about fending off the red-hot Seattle Thunderbirds who have crept within one point in the standings.
For “the Pitbull” and six other Manitoba natives that task commences tonight as a six-game road trip brings them home.
For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter.
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