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40 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday December 19, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com 40 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2008 Hockey hits the right note From practising in the basement of a shopping mall, Misha Song has come a long way to pursue his dream By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Misha Song swoops in on the defenceman and knocks the puck off the stick of his Burlington opponent. Sidestepping the defender, he picks up the loose puck in the faceoff circle and breaks toward the goal. The goalie tries to catch him off guard and reaches to pokecheck him. Song draws the puck back and the netminder's stick misses its intended target, instead taking Song's skates out from under him. Airborne, Song manages to maintain control of the puck and slides it into the vacated net for his third goal of the night, giving his team an 8-1 lead. It's no surprise to his coach Duncan Harvey. "He's extremely skilled -- skating, shooting, puckhandling -- and he's extremely smart and you can see that on the ice." The Oakville minor peewee AAA Rangers will play in the Richard Bell Memorial tournament, which begins next Saturday. Billed as an international event, it will feature teams from the United States, England, Finland and Sweden. But no player will have come as far to play than the hometown Rangers' Song. · · · on their knowledge of a game they had played since they were children. Even though much of the hockey equipment Misha now wears was manufactured in China, it was next to impossible to buy in the country. Misha got his from Russia, through a business associate of his dad. It would have been much easier to pursue any number of the other sports he participated in -- badminton, soccer or basketball, which his grandfather played professionally. But Misha was taken by the unusual game his friend had encouraged him to try. "He told me it was a very good sport," Misha says. "It's a fast sport, it's quick. The other sports are too slow." The group of 14 kids Misha practised with eventually formed a team, the Beijing Cubs, and went to Hong Kong to play in a couple of tournaments. Two years ago the Cubs decided to really put their skills to the test. They entered the Bell Capital Cup in Ottawa, the world's largest minor hockey tournament with 510 teams in 21 divisions. Organizers, unsure of what to expect from a Chinese team, put them in the house league division. The Cubs won the championship. · · · From the stands, Lina Song is watching her son's game intently, only taking her eyes off the Harvey remembers opening the e-mail early play to sample the make-believe treats her in 2007. It was the time of year where minor daughter is cooking up in her toy oven. hockey coaches regularly get e-mails from par"Oh no, three-on-one," she says as the oppo- ents asking if their sons can come to tryouts in sition players break toward the Oakville net. the spring. Sometimes it's a player from a "Good job, Scotty," she calls out as Oakville neighbouring community, sometimes it's a goalie Scott Smith makes the save. local player who has been playing in Lina clearly has a good under- "I was a little Toronto wanting to return. But one standing of the game, remarkable stood out. worried they considering she had never even "This has to be a joke," Harvey seen hockey until Misha began were coming a thought. playing six years ago. Even then it long way to be A 10-year-old Chinese hockey was more than a year before she disappointed." player wanting to try out for his saw an actual game. Oakville atom team? It was a little "He only had practice, no Oakville Ranger early for an April Fools prank. Still, games," Lina says, "because there coach Duncan Harvey he was sure one of his assistant weren't enough kids." coaches was behind it. That was the reality of playing hockey in "The more I read, the detail it had, I thought, China. Practices at 11 p.m. on Saturday and `(My assistants) either have a lot of time on their Sunday on the one rink -- actually a half-size hands, or this is serious.'" rink -- open to the public in Beijing, located in Lina and her husband, Yu, were very serious. the basement of a shopping mall. While in Ottawa they had met a Chinese family There were no after school street hockey who lived in Oakville. They told the Songs what games to hone stickhandling skills, no games a nice community it was. Buoyed by Misha's on TV to learn from the pros, no adults to pass love for hockey and the Cubs' success in Ottawa, MICHAEL IVANIN / OAKVILLE BEAVER STICKING WITH HOCKEY: Misha Song tapes his stick prior to a recent game at the River Oaks Community Centre. Song and his family moved to Oakville from China so that he could play hockey at a higher level. The 11-year-old hopes to one day play for the Chinese national team in the Olympics. they began discussing the possibility of Misha playing in Canada -- but only if he could make a top-level team. Misha arrived with his parents last April for tryouts. Being a top player on a house league champion was a far cry from playing on a strong AAA team like Oakville, which has a deep and talented group of players born in 1997 (Oakville's four peewee teams have lost only five times in 84 games this year). Even Harvey had his doubts. "Honestly, I was a little worried they were coming a long way to be disappointed," he said. Though there were some rough edges -- "He had this weird thing he would do with his arms (when he skated) and he was all bent over," Harvey said -- but his skills were unmistakable. Misha made the team. · · · Earning a spot on the Rangers was just the beginning for the Songs. It meant uprooting their lives in China and splitting the family in two -- Misha's dad remains in China to run his company. See Song page 41 905-845-6989 www.icesports.com